


It Was A Mistake

by upsetrise



Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: AU, Lots of Angst, Multi, but also lots of fluff as well, kid! five
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-12
Updated: 2021-02-21
Packaged: 2021-03-06 16:21:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 10
Words: 34,723
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26431852
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/upsetrise/pseuds/upsetrise
Summary: Allison Hargreeves had made plenty of mistakes in the past. Even when she had been a child under the watchful eye of Reginald Hargreeves her mistakes had been pointed to her; how her rumours were supposed to be quick, how her wording needed to be different. And she didn’t even want to think about special training. However this might have been the biggest mistake she had ever made.When Allison accidentally rumours Five into thinking he's really thirteen, the Hargreeves begin to learn  how much their brother went through in the apocalypse and now with a proper teenager on their hands, learn how to be a family again. And somehow wondering how on earth they're going to get Five back to normal.AU. Set after season 2 but no sparrow academy.  Also Ben is here because reasons.
Comments: 48
Kudos: 500





	1. Rumours

**Author's Note:**

> Do you know for the umbrella academy being my favourite tv show I can't believe how I haven't wrote anything for it. I tried my best as tbh I have no idea where this story is going, I just had this idea one day and I wanted to explore Allison and Five's relationship. As for the spellings and other things, I'm not American. I'm not sure if I really like the first chapter but we will just see how this goes.

1

Rumours

Allison Hargreeves had made plenty of mistakes in the past. Even when she had been a child under the watchful eye of Reginald Hargreeves her mistakes had been pointed out to her; how her rumours were supposed to be quick, how her wording needed to be different. And she didn’t even want to think about special training. Then of course there had been the whole debacle with her marriage and that one mistake had cost her, her whole life. Was it any wonder that she kept making mistakes? Vanya; she had failed her by making a mistake. Perhaps the only mistake she hadn’t made was marrying Ray. That was something she would never regret. However this might have been the biggest mistake she had ever made.

=

“Allison, where is the coffee maker?” Five growled as he blinked into the kitchen.

Allison looked up from the magazine she was reading to see the boy’s school uniform except it was more rumpled than usual. His tie was crooked bent at an angle that looked like Five had tried to do it in his sleep. His blazer needed a good iron and his socks had started to roll down. However it was when she saw how his dark hair looked like it had been dragged through a bush and his eyes had bags that could rival Klaus’s that concern overtook her.

“Maybe it's in the cupboard? Should you really be drinking coffee right now? It’s 11pm.” She said as she closed the magazine. A picture of Patrick and Claire smiling, almost mocking her stared back from the cover.

Five scoffed.

“Yes and don’t tell me what to do. I’m fifty eight.” He shoved his hands into his pockets.

Allison sighed as she looked at the magazine cover. They had been back for over two weeks from the sixties, after stopping two apocalypses and she still hadn’t been allowed to see Claire. She reached out and traced the picture, imagining would it be like to stroke her head and kiss her daughter. She wanted to let out a sob as sadness bubbled within her. Instead knowing that she had an audience, she covered her mouth and looked down at the floor. 

The sound of warping came from behind her and she heard a delicate footstep. 

“Still no word about when you can see her?” He asked, picking the magazine up and inspecting the picture. His voice was gentle, so unlike Five that Allison wanted to get a camera out and record him.

“No Patrick wants to take me to court because I missed one session.” Allison muttered bitterly. If only her Father hadn’t chosen to die, maybe she would have had the chance to see her daughter again. Sometimes she wondered if she could blame all the mistakes on her Father, the way he had treated her as if she was a doll that he could do anything he wanted with without reaping the consequences.

Five didn’t say much, only a hmm vibrated from his lips. It was another moment before he stood up, sighed and before Allison could say anything else he was gone.

She slumped back into her seat listening to the hum of the fridge that was the only distinct sound in the large kitchen. There were shuffles from above, slight footsteps. One was probably Diego walking up and down, trying to figure out where Lila could have gone. The other might have been Klaus on his nightly wanderings of which sibling he could bother for the rest of the night. Allison listened to these sounds, the house that she had grown up felt alive. Lived in, like it should have done the first eighteen years of her life.

When they had all been kids, it had only been noisy when they were going on missions and training. Chaos filling through the halls as they got ready, their powers often upbringing the devastation that they caused. The rest of the time it had been silent, them confined to their room reflecting on their studies but of course only Five and Ben had really done that. The sound that Allison did remember breaking that silence had been Vanya’s violin. The classical pieces flowing through the academy like the wake of a boat.

Allison got up from her seat and walked out of the kitchen to the lounge where she saw Luther’s bulking figure sat on the couch, his mouth ploughing through a sandwich that was about as big as his head. He had been eating a lot she had noticed even when they had been in the sixties. She knew that he been in them only a year but he had picked up a bad habit of eating more than he should have been consuming. Part of her thought that had to be the way he was dealing with the trauma caused to him by their Father. It had taken him thirty years to realise what sort of man Reginald Hargreeves was.

Luther had started to take a large bite out of the bread, the lettuce spilling onto the floor when he took notice of Allison watching him. He almost spluttered his food out as he did and swallowed it quickly with a large gulp.

“You scared me.” He said moving the sandwich down to his lap.

Allison laughed. Luther never failed to make her laugh, even back when they had been kids and she had been scared of their Father. Luther’s jokes had always managed to pull her through.

“I think the sandwich would do a better of job of scaring you, why aren’t you eating in the kitchen?” She asked.

They had been trying to eat regular meals together. They had only managed one last week which of course had been a disaster. Diego throwing a knife towards Five had of course been the frying pan into the fire and there had almost been a bloodbath if Luther hadn’t stepped in. It had been something commission related, the two of them had wanted to out rival each other on who had the best knowledge of the Commission. Allison thought it was petty. Since then they had tried to have two more but Five had refused, locking himself in his room with a bottle of beer and a notebook.

“I heard you and Five talking in there. I didn’t want to disturb him.” Luther added sheepishly. His hands held tight onto the sandwich and the mayonnaise was beginning to leak out spilling onto his hands, staining his fingers white.

“Disturb him? Why?” Allison asked as she sat down next to him.

“We had an argument last night.” Luther admitted.

Allison had returned late last night from visiting Vanya. They had spent the evening getting wine drunk. It had been a blurry mess but it had been something that Allison needed. She loved her brothers, she did but sometimes she needed female company. She wanted to form a bond with her sister, something that she should have done when they were kids and needed each other. It was the first right in which she needed to correct out of all her wrongs.

“About what?” Allison was intrigued to say the least.

Luther squeezed his sandwich even tighter leaving finger indentations on the bread.

“How it doesn’t seem he wants to spend time with us. He’s being an asshole.” Luther muttered.

“Five is an asshole. There are no social skills to be found there.” Allison said with an eyeroll. Although did any of them really have any social skills to begin with? _Certainly not her._ A tiny voice whispered at the back of her head.

Luther gave a small smile.

“I guess but wasn’t the plan to try and be a family again? After every thing that’s happened I thought he would at least care.”

She placed her hand on his large shoulder, the fabric of his shirt felt grimy. She wanted to remove her hand but kept it there, comforting him.

“It’s tough for all of us but are you going to sit here forever ignoring him?” She said with an eyebrow raise.

Luther considered her answer for a moment.

“Well I asked Klaus on what to do and he said to take the coffee maker to make him talk to us.” Luther mumbled.

Allison wondered for a second if her brother’s head was screwed on correctly.

“You asked Klaus. Klaus? For advice?” Allison's words couldn’t hide her bafflement. Klaus was not the person you went to to solve arguments unless you wanted to get drunk or high.

“He was the only other person here at the time. I had no choice.” Luther sighed.

However before Allison could even respond. Five appeared in front of them, space dissipating behind him. His eyes were locked onto Luther and Luther only.

“Where is it?” He growled. His voice cracked on the last word but that didn’t seem to faze the boy.

Luther eyed him and then stood up, his colossal frame dwarfing the boy’s haughty one.

“I’m not giving it back until you act like you actually give a shit about us.” Luther threatened. His index finger pointed towards the boy.

Five looked like he wanted to tear Luther apart limb from limb. However he took a few careful steps towards him, straining his neck with his veins visible and pulsating. 

“Luther. I’ll only ask nicely one more time. Where the hell is it?” Five said through gritted teeth.

Allison knew that she shouldn’t be afraid of a child, the boy barely looked fourteen but the fury and murder that she witnessed in his eyes scared her. Fear paralysed her to the spot. This was someone who knew how to murder, and how to get away with it.

“Fivey! It’s here!” Klaus’s voice trailed into the room.

All three of them turned to see Klaus stood in the entrance to the lounge. The coffee maker held above his head like a religious artefact. He was adorned in her leather skirt with a black tasselled crop top that she herself would have worn. And in true Klaus fashion he was shoeless.

Five blinked over to Klaus and took it out of his outstretched hands and then disappeared again to do god knows what.

Allison’s legs felt like jelly and she wasn’t even standing up. She lay back into the couch and looked at Luther. He was staring at what was left at his sandwich with what looked almost like guilt.

“Was that all really worth it?” She said with a huff. Her family were a disaster.

“Totally worth it! Fivey’s a gremlin!” Klaus called as he headed back up the stairs.

Allison ignored him and looked back at Luther.

“No. Sorry Allison but can I just be alone right now?” Luther said without looking at her. It hurt. She wanted him to look at her. To make sure that he was okay.

“Okay.” Allison whispered and stood up, heading back towards the kitchen and her lonely magazine.

God she needed to get drunk again. Properly drunk this time and not to give a shit about anything. She began to ransack the cupboards looking for any sort of alcohol she could find. She wanted to laugh, she felt like Klaus. This was how he dealt with his emotions wasn’t it? It was a selfish thought but she had always thought she had been the most level headed when compared to the rest of the family but that was some sick fantasy. She was just as screwed in the head as the rest of her siblings.

It took her a good five minutes before she finally found a thirty year old wine bottled covered in a thick layer of dust. She cleaned it and found a bottle opener to open it up with. She half thought about getting a glass but was the point? She missed her child. She wanted her child. It hurt like she was a missing a limb. A stupid thought ran through her head, Five looked like a child why couldn’t he act like one? With that final thought she opened the bottle and drank it dry.

-

The next thing Allison knew her head was throbbing, like it wanted to explode. She started to open her eyes and her vision was bleary. The table in front of her barely even a shape.

“You drank wine without me? Why wasn’t I invited to the party?” Klaus’s voice filled her ears and he was the last person she wanted to deal with right now.

Her vision cleared up enough for her to be able to make out Klaus sitting cross legged on the kitchen table. He was wearing yesterday’s clothes and was inspecting the bottle of wine.

“There wasn’t any party.” Allison muttered clutching her throbbing head.

“Care to lament why you got drunk?” Klaus questioned as he placed the bottle back down on the table.

Allison didn’t want to answer at first especially because she was not in the mood for another Scorpion and Frog story when her head was hurting.

“Does it matter?” She said as she got up from the chair. Her vision wavered a bit and she clutched onto the chair to give her a bit more balance. She was still a little bit drunk she realised.

“You look like shit,” Klaus’s voice chimed in but it was missing it’s usual singsong.

”Allie, is something wrong?” He asked.

Klaus using her nickname? He was being serious. Everything was wrong she wanted to scream at her brother. She wanted her daughter beside her but she was halfway across the country with her sorry excuse of a ex-husband. She wanted Ray’s loving embrace back, he was her backbone. He would know exactly what to say to console her, to help but who knew where he was? Part of her had thought about searching for him, to see if he was alive. She wanted to talk to him but she hadn’t even done that. Maybe a coffee could clear her head and sober her up.

“I need a coffee.” She muttered rubbing her temple.

“Good luck with that mon soeur. Five still has the coffee maker so you may have to ask him to use it.” Klaus said with a shrug.

He leaned back onto the table and lay on it, beginning a conversation with someone else. Allison could only imagine it was Ben. She might have said hi if her head wasn’t threatening to explode.

“Where is he?” She asked Klaus.

“Either his room or the lounge.” Klaus answered passively before going back to his other conversation. Allison took a few tentative steps forward as she made her way to the lounge. She hoped that Five would be there and her prayers were answered as she saw him sitting on the couch. He was engrossed in his notebook, his eyes scouring over the equations or whatever they were at top speed. He didn’t even notice her presence. She watched him and truly looked at him. He looked so young, down to the fluffy black hair and chubby cheeks of childhood. If she forgot for a second that he was really a grown up, he truly did look like a child.

She was reminded of Claire and almost let out another a sob. She wanted her baby back with her, by her side so that she could see her grow up. A thought crossed her drunken mind, Five was a child. What if he was really a child in mind and body? If she wasn’t still clearly drunk and thinking straight, she would have never have done what happened next.

Five looked up at her.

“Allison-wha-,”

But it was already too late as the words left her lips.

“I heard a rumour that you were really thirteen.”

The words floated towards him, passing through his hair. It was when his eyes turned white and Five’s new reality set in was when she realised what she had done.

She gasped.

“Five! No I-," She covered her hands with her mouth. 

The boy didn’t reply, instead looking at his surroundings before a heart wrenching scream left his lips.


	2. More Mistakes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I'm pretty sure each chapter is going to get longer and longer. I wanted this one to be longer but I might have been here all day writing it, although I have so many other things to be writing as well. Also if anyone would like to be a Beta or anything as I might not have time to edit, hit me up.

2

More Mistakes

There was ash floating in front of his face but that was normal in the apocalypse. Sometimes Five liked to pretend that it was snow and he was simply lost in a blizzard. Trading a more traditional danger for something that was unknown. He couldn’t remember how long he had been here now, a month? Three months? The days blended into one like someone flicking through several pages of a book. 

Each day was the same, get up and scavenge for food and water. He had managed to find bugs, cockroaches no less and it still made him wretch when he ate them. He forced them down because he needed to survive. He needed to stop whatever had caused this. After the food, came the water he kept in his flask. It tasted like a sewer which was a bold statement to make but that was what it tasted like. The rest of the day was spent writing down equations in Vayna’s book. Hoping, thinking about when he got home. If he ever got home. Those thoughts had been lingering in his mind. What about if this was it, that he was stuck in this hellhole forever? 

He was determined to not let that to be the cause. Even if it took him years and years to get home, he knew this wasn't going to be forever. It couldn’t or Five actually thought he would lose his mind. 

He turned back to looking at the ash, it floated onto his face and he wiped it away. He could feel his chest getting heavier. Why was it always so hard to breathe? He could feel it entering his lungs and he let out a long cough sputtering phlegm everywhere. He cringed as he saw the contents on the floor. This ash was going to kill him.

Five stood up and dusted his pants. He had found them when he had raided Gimble Brothers, along with Delores. She had been so alone, so afraid when she had called out to him so he had answered her prayer. At least he wasn’t alone in this barren world. He looked across to see her propped up in her wagon, her smile was the only thing that cheered him as he looked at her.

Are you okay? She asked.

“No, I need to find food, and I don’t know where to go.” He muttered as he looked at his makeshift camp. 

It wasn’t much but it did pretty nicely. He had camped out in an library, the walls mostly intact. It was a circular library, the walls standing about a quarter of metre away from each other. Five assumed that the floor he was on used to be the top as there were now piles of rubble, brick and plaster shoved into the middle. He had started to use several of the books as makeshift chairs. They weren’t the most practical or comfiest things but they helped when he just wanted to rest his head for a couple of minutes.

Five, remember food. Delores said. He was sure that she was even scoffing at him.

“I know, I know.” He moaned.

His stomach growled, a horrible pain that had him clutching his abdomen. He was starving, ravenous even. When was the last time he had ate? Maybe a couple of days ago? His memory was hazy but he was pretty sure it had been some bugs he had shoved into his mouth out of desperation. He had been surviving on alcohol which he shouldn’t have been doing at his young age. That was what Klaus did. Klaus, the others…No. He would not think about that. He couldn’t or else he actually might collapse. 

He started to make his way out into the deserted city. The skyscrapers now nothing more than rubble resting at the same level as all the cars dotted about. Sometimes Five wondered if there was another person out there, if they had survived this monstrosity. Were they surviving just like him, hoping, begging that one day they would come across a living breathing soul? The more time passed, the more Five’s fairytale felt like a fairytale. There was just him and Delores, surviving. 

Five wrapped his scarf around his neck. It still got very cold in the morning but it would warm up later, as the season of spring had taken hold. Although it wasn’t really spring anymore. He had seen no trees growing, no flowers. The world had changed, there was nothing except insects.

He spent most of the day scouring the city and the empty buildings for any sort of sustenance. He couldn’t use his powers as he was relying on whatever energy his sleep had given him. He scraped through soil, rocks and found nothing.  
The sun in the sky was beginning to set as he decided to check his last building. It looked like it had once been a part of a small supermarket chain but a car had driven into the window, smashing the glass everywhere. Five side-stepped past the car and inside. Shelves had been knocked over like a row of domino's but what he saw on the ground made his heart soar. Cans, at least five of them scattered by one of the shelves. Without thinking he ran over to them and scooped them up. They were dusty covered in cobwebs. He rubbed the dust of one of them to see what it was.

Beans. Actual food. Five didn’t wait, he opened the can with a loud clunk and shoved the beans into his mouth. They were slimy and didn’t taste quite right as they slid down his throat but he didn’t care. It was the first proper food he had eaten in so long. He inspected the other cans to see that they were a can of tuna and carrots. He would save them for later.  
Five made sure to take note of where the store was as he climbed out but the world stopped dead as he looked in front of him. Six makeshift gravestones laid out in a circle. His sibling’s graves. He hadn’t even realised he had wondered this far towards them. On shaky legs, Five made his way over.

It had taken him a whole week to move his sibling’s bodies. First had been Klaus. He didn’t want to stare at his tattoo any longer. The one that had told him that these people were his siblings, the one who had suffered deaths and the only bodies that he had found. It was cruel. So cruel that the world always seemed to be against him. He had fought it, fought his Father. To prove himself and the world kept turning its back on him.

Allison and Diego had been easier, he had placed them together wishing that their chests would rise and fall. For them to wake up and take him away from his nightmare. Luther had been the hardest to move. It had taken Five almost two days and an almost broken arm to put him to rest. More than once he had glimpsed Luther’s body underneath his clothes. A gorilla like chest. He never found out the answer to that even in Vayna’s book, there was nothing mentioned about it. Luther must have never told anyone. 

Before he had read Vanya’s book, he had wondered about Ben, but discovering that he had died when he was sixteen was like ice pricking into his heart. It had hurt, all his siblings had died but the one that might have understood him the most except from Vanya, had his life taken away from him far too young. 

Vanya was the only body he had never found. Part of him thought that she probably wasn’t there. She had no powers so she had probably died in the aftermath. It was still a pointless death. All the people that had died, they should have lived but they had perished on the 1st April 2019.

Five sat down near them. He should have come here sooner. He had left them on their own. 

“I’m sorry, I didn’t forget you.” He whispered to the ground. He didn’t want to come because when he thought about his siblings, all he could see were their faces. Their unblinking faces. In fact he could see them now, in the back of his mind. He clutched his head trying not to scream. Five sank to the ground and pulled his knees up to his chest. His eyes were wet with tears and he quickly wiped them away. He didn’t want his siblings to know he was weak. He was going to be strong for them, and he promised that he would find his way back to them.

As he looked to the sky, the sun had almost disappeared behind the shell of the city and twilight was setting, Five thought about home. He thought about mealtimes with his siblings and even the half an hour of free time they had together. He missed them. He missed them with a twisted ache in his heart. He wanted to close his eyes, for five minutes. It wouldn’t hurt. He knew he should be trying to get home back to Delores but he wanted to rest. His eyes were getting heavier and heavier.

Five let his eyes close. It wouldn’t be for long. It couldn’t be for long. 

It wasn’t even minutes until his sibling’s dead faces entered his mind. Five clutched his head. No! No! All he had wanted was five minutes of peace. Why couldn’t the memories leave him alone? Was this his divine punishment, his punishment for not listening to his Father? He always thought his Father had been wrong. The way Reginald Hargreeves had looked at the world as if it was his job to claim it. Meanwhile Five thought it was his path in life to excel at everything to prove the world wrong but that was so far from the truth.

He forced his eyes open and almost fell. His surroundings had changed. Gone was the burnt city and surrounding graves. Now it was his old house complete with the vile decorations that his Father loved. He looked down at his hands, a notebook he didn’t recognize was clutched into his hand. This was a weird dream. He was dreaming of home. He looked up and saw a woman standing looking at him in horror. A woman wearing the dead Allison’s face. Why had his dreams turned cruel as well? Was this a nightmare? A nightmare that his mind had decided to conjure to punish him? 

This was a punishment. He should have visited his sibling’s grave sooner. He should have been there. He vowed that he would never leave them alone again. He let out a scream. A scream that hurt his whole vocal cords but he needed to, to let this hallucination know. 

“I’m sorry.” He bubbled not really looking at the woman. 

He cradled into himself, scratching at his face, at his hair, he wanted to hide. He did see out of the corner of his eye a blue sleeve, blue like the blazer of his old uniform. This was such a cruel nightmare.  
Five wanted to wake up. He closed his eyes as tightly as he could, even pinched himself and opened his eyes again. It was still the same damn lounge. Why was he still in the lounge? He could feel another scream building in his throat.

“Five?” A woman’s voice asked. He didn’t recognize it and looked to see the hallucination of Allison. He thought it was slightly strange that she looked a little different. Her hair was straight and she had a set of bangs resting on her forehead. He was sure she hadn’t died like that but then again he was going half crazy.

“You’re dead, I’m sorry. I’m sorry.” He begged. He didn’t want her to come any closer.

Instead she took quite a few more steps until she was near him. Her hand reached and touched his shoulder.

Five froze.

Her touch felt real, he could feel the weight of hand as it clutched his shoulder. He hadn’t felt human touch in so many months but now that he had it. It felt familiar, foreign, strange and liberating. 

Something then clicked in his mind. This wasn’t a nightmare. This was real. Somehow he had made it home. He decided to leave that for later. Taking one look at Allison, because this was Allison. It was his sister. Older sister now but he was home.

“Five, are you okay?” Allison asked once again.

Five didn’t answer. He looked at his older sister, launched himself forward and wrapped his arms around her.

=  
Allison froze as Five hugged her. Out of all the things that she had been expecting to happen, this wasn’t the right one. She had expected Five to scream more. To blink away, to run but a hug? She wrapped her hands around his back and noted how small he was. She could pick him up easily again, although it had been a bit tough carrying him when she had to do that with Diego. Her rumour. She wasn’t sure what it had done. Was he really just thirteen now? She shouldn’t have done it. She shouldn’t have done it.

She pulled away quickly and Five looked at her with such confusion and dare she say hurt? She had never seen him look so vulnerable before. It was at that point she knew. This Five was thirteen. He was thirteen…

“Allison, you’re real aren’t you?” Five asked and he clutched onto her sleeve. His grip was so tight, vice like. He still had strength she guessed. This was no real way of getting rid of muscle memory. 

“Yes,” Allison said hesitantly. She wasn’t sure how to engage this Five in conversation. How would she explain herself? He would hate her for what he did, for changing who he was. She knew she needed to tell the others but she had no idea where the others could even be. 

“How did I get here? I-I was by your graves… Did I use my powers?” Five asked, looking at her with wild eyes. They were so scared. So scared of something. The apocalypse maybe? 

“No…Five listen to me. I need to explain-,” Allison tried.

Five wasn’t listening. He was staring at his hands again.

“I don’t remember getting these scars.” He said.

He held out his hands to her and she saw two faint lines across the palms of his hands. She wouldn’t know where the scars came from either.

“Maybe they’re new? Are they from how I got here? Why can’t I remember?” Five mumbled clutching his head.

She wanted to tell him, but he was already so confused. Would he even believe her? Would he ever trust her again? Allison wanted to fall to the floor. This was a mistake she couldn't take back, it was bigger than her. She needed someone’s help. Anyone’s.

“Yo!” Klaus called as he walked into the lounge. “I swear I heard Five screaming.” He mumbled.

Allison watched as Five whipped his head up to look at Klaus. His face seemed to scrunch up into an attack of tears once again. She watched as Five stood up and walked over to Klaus. His hand reached out and touched Klaus’s chest, right where his heart was.

“You’re alive as well.” Five whispered.

He looked at Klaus in awe. 

“You’re real? You’re alive, Klaus.”

Klaus looked puzzled and laughed. 

“Pretty sure I haven’t died any time soon, old man. Are you okay, Five? Did you hit your head?” Klaus asked, looking at his smaller brother.

Five frowned.“Old man? I’m not old, I’m thirteen.”

Klaus blinked. “That’s the first time you’ve said that. Finally accepted that your body’s thirteen?”

Five backed away, taking a few steps away from Klaus. “What? What do you mean Klaus? I’ve only just got here, I’ve been trying to get back to all of you for months…”

Klaus scrunched his face up. “Five, are you feeling okay? You’ve been back for weeks.”

Allison watched as their younger brother’s chest began to rise and fall. His breathing becoming quicker, his eyes darting from her and then to Klaus. 

“What’s going on?” Five whispered. His breathing had started to become heavier. Allison watched as he kept taking steps back until he sat down on the sofa. His hands were shaking and there was sweat appearing on his brow. He was looking at his hands, his breaths heavier and heavier.

Allison had only seen a few panic attacks in her time as an actress. Some of the colleagues she had worked with had them before they went on set, acting helped them mask it as they became someone else. However she would have never put Five to having one. The Five she knew was level headed, smart and would never let anything like this happen to him. Then she forced herself to remember. This wasn’t the Five she knew. This was actual thirteen year old Five, she needed to remember that. She needed to comfort him.

“Allison? Klaus? Why aren’t you saying anything?” Five asked, his voice was breaking. Hands were shaking. He was scared. Scared of his own siblings.

She knew she had made more and more mistakes, maybe this was another one but she knew that it could at least help him. Help him to be okay.

“I heard a rumour you fell asleep.” Allison said and the words took effect.

Allison ran up to him and clutched him as his eyes drooped and he fell onto her chest. His breathing became softer and his dark eyelashes twitched as he slumbered. Allison lifted him into her lap, she knew that when he woke up, she would have to explain everything. She looked over to Klaus who was frowning, running a hand through his hair as he asked.

“Allison, what the hell is going on?”


	3. A Wake Up Call

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Take a shot everytime Five says he's not old, he's thirteen. Also I realised that I needed to put a bit of context into this AU, basically they came back to the future but everything they did in the first timeline happened. It's just that Vanya never blew up the world at her concert. Sorry for the angst in advance, we will get to the fluffy bits first but I just wanna do the angst. 
> 
> Also I'm loving the comments, I don't have to time to reply very often but do know I read every single one of them and appreciate it.

3

A Wake Up Call

Five’s body felt heavy, as if it wasn’t his own. It was a sensation that he wasn’t used to like he had been in a deep sleep. He wanted to laugh, in the apocalypse he didn’t sleep. Maybe somehow he had managed to get some sleep? That was almost laughable in its entirety. He opened his eyes and looked at his surroundings. It was his old bedroom. He looked down at himself as he saw the duvet covering him and he was clothed in his old pyjamas. Was he home? Then it clicked as some memories washed over him. He had somehow appeared home, Allison and Klaus had been there. They had looked too similar to the corpses then he had liked, but they had still looked different. Five didn’t remember Klaus having long hair.

He started to move, his limbs feeling strange as if they didn’t belong to him. He pulled the covers up and stared at the content of his room. It was covered in equations from floor to ceiling. Five padded across to look at them and saw some names in the chalk. They were circled but they meant nothing to him. Who on earth was Milton Greene? He reached his hand out and touched the chalk. It came off quite easily leaving white powder on his fingertips. It was his handwriting, but he didn’t remember writing it. Was this how he had got here?  
He realized that he didn’t know what day it was. If he was in the year 2019 judging by his siblings appearance then he needed to find out what date. He was scared to know because if it was before April 1st, he would have to try and figure out how to stop it. He had no idea how he would stop it when he didn’t know what caused it. He tried to recall last night, waking up from the apocalypse and seeing his siblings. He couldn’t recall what had been said, it had faded with sleep. He was sure that Klaus had called him an ‘old man’. Maybe that was just Klaus’s way of joking? There was also the fact that they weren’t surprised to see him. Could he have really lost his memory somehow?  
The only thing that would put his mind to rest if he was to find a newspaper. He padded to his wardrobe, noticing how his pyjamas seem a little too big on him. He opened it to see his old uniforms. A pang went through his chest. His uniform had lasted about a month into the apocalypse. When it had eventually started to get torn, he knew that he would have to part from the uniform. The last tie he really had to his previous life. It had hurt burning it but he had needed something to burn for a fire. Looking at them also made him think of the day he had left, his Father had been right. Time Travel was impossible. That was even proven by the fact that he had ended up in 2019, that had to be the year but he didn't know how. His whole body still ached from whatever long sleep he had. It also didn't help that his head seemed to be fuzzy from the night previous.

Five wracked his brain and tried to recall more details. He had hugged Allison before Klaus had come in, but then he had been confused. Then he remembered that Allison had rumoured him to sleep. She had only used a few rumours on him in the past, which was only a couple of months for him. He had refused to do some stupid training and then his Father had forced Allison to rumour him. All Five had recalled from that training session was an aching body and a fuzzy mind. They were nothing more than weapons to their Father, tools to use and dispose when he needed them. Whenever Allison used her rumours, the person was often left with some vague idea of what had happened, or didn't even recall it.

There had been something else about him suddenly waking up but he couldn't recall anything else. Or had he been wearing a uniform in the first place?

Five reached across for a hanger and pulled the uniform out, his fingers tracing the logo of the Umbrella Academy. The fabric was soft to the touch, softer than anything in the apocalypse. He lifted the blazer up to his cheek and rubbed it. It was like heaven exploding onto his face. It was recently washed, the fabric soft and it smelt like laundry detergent as he inhaled the smell.

He knew that if any of his siblings walked in he would pretend that this never happened. He wanted to know what the rest of them were like, but he needed to find the date. There was an inner panic building in his chest. If the date was a couple of days before the apocalypse then this beautiful and strange dream would come to an end. He tried to push the feelings down as far as they would go. However fear gripped him still. He needed to find a newspaper.

He brought the uniform out and began to get dressed. Putting the shorts and socks on again felt strange. It was almost as if he had never left as he admired himself in the mirror. As he began to take his pyjama top off, he noticed a bandage on his abdomen. He touched it and flinched because it still hurt. The dressing had recently been replaced but he wondered where it had come from. He added it to the mental note of things he didn't remember.

It took him a few more minutes to get dressed, tying his tie and he looked in the mirror properly. His eyes were darker, black circles that he contributed to his lack of sleep and his hair slightly shorter than he remembered, however it was cut into his signature style. He was sure that was wrong. His hair had been a lot longer in the apocalypse. It had felt dry as well. This looked healthy. This was another thing that didn't make sense.

He looked for a pair of shoes and found them nestled by his bed. They looked brand new, as if someone had just polished them. Slipping them on and tying the laces, they felt right like they had always belonged there. Five wouldn't have noticed how things were new or if they felt soft before the apocalypse. The last four months, he had missed feelings things and it had brought a new found respect to things he never thought twice about before.

He blinked through his door and into the corridor, admiring the way the corridor hadn't changed at all. With the sunlight streaming in through the window a layer of dust was floating in front of the posters that had dominated Five's childhood. Looking at them now, they were slightly yellowed from the light and some look like they had been dog eared. He looked at the one near the window, the figure holding two hands up into the air. If Five was younger, he might have thought the poster looked sad but that was a childish notion.

"Five?" A voice asked from behind him. He didn't recognise it but it was female's, it wasn't Allison's and so that left only one person.

"Vanya," He said as he turned around and saw his grown up sister.

The first thing he noted was how small she was. It looked like she hadn't grown since she was thirteen. He couldn't tell if he was taller than her but he assumed so. She looked like the picture he had found on her book, except in that picture she had almost seemed miserable. It was eerie, the Vanya he was used to knowing stood hunched with shoulders and face down as if she didn't want the world to know that she existed.

This Vanya? Well she looked him in the eye, her posture straight as if she finally understood who she was. Her hair was tied back in a ponytail that swished as she walked towards him. She was smiling. His Vanya had never smiled like that before. If he hadn't seen a picture of her as an adult, he would have thought she was a total stranger.

As she approached him, Five took a step back. He felt overwhelmed as all the memories came crashing into his head. Vanya shaking her head, telling him to stop it before he ran out of the house and straight into his doom.

She kept coming closer and didn't notice how he kept stepping back. She started to talk again. She also didn't seem surprised that he was backing away from her, or perhaps she hadn’t even noticed.

"I've been meaning to ask you-," Five didn't hear the rest as he blinked away.

He knew that it was rude. He hadn't seen his sister in over four months, true this wasn't the version he was used to. If he wasn't feeling like everything was wrong and made no sense then he might have hugged her but he couldn't. When he looked at her, he was reminded of the mistake he had made.

Five looked up to see that he blinked into the kitchen. He hadn't really thought about a destination in mind. The kitchen was empty, no other siblings in sight. It did make him wonder what the others were like. If Vanya was that different, then what about the others? He hadn't talked to Allison and Klaus enough to know what they were like.

His eyes darted to the table and saw a newspaper nestled onto it. There was a magazine laid underneath it, it looked like a gossip magazine. Five had no interest in it as he walked over and picked up the newspaper. He didn't care about the brand or the headlines. Only the date. Which was Wednesday 17th April 2019.

Five dropped the newspaper in shock. He had known it was 2019 or at least thought that, but the 17th April? That was impossible. Had the apocalypse been prevented, somehow? Five thought about the reasons why it couldn't have happened. Perhaps it was do with the fact that he couldn't recall how he got to 2019? His chest began to feel heavy and his breathing quickened. No, he didn't want to have one right now!

The world felt like it was spinning as he sat down onto the kitchen tiles. They were cool, contrasting to his clammy skin. He wanted to lie on them as the whole room began to feel hot. He tucked his knees into himself and tried to focus on his breathing. It did no good however as his heart hammered through his chest.

He wanted to cry but he couldn't. Crying was weak and Five Hargreeves wasn't weak! Or was he? He had fucked up. First was traveling to the apocalypse and now he seemed to have lost his memory. He rocked back and forth, trying to calm down.

He felt a hand touch his knee and saw Vanya sitting across from him. He blinked at her, trying to hide his tears. He had been so wrapped up in himself that he hadn't heard her approaching him.

"Keep taking breaths with me, okay?" She said with that smile he liked but then didn't like at the same time.

He didn't reply but changed his breathing to match hers. It took several moments before he felt calm enough to speak.

"Thanks," He whispered still not making eye contact.

Vanya moved back and sat cross legged on the floor with him.

"All better now, old man?" Vanya said. There was a joking tone at the end that he would have never thought Vanya was capable of.

Five blinked. Old man again? Why did they keep calling him that!

"I'm not old." Five bristled at his old sister.

"I think fifty eight is kind of old." Vanya said with a smirk.

Fifty-eight? He certainly didn’t look fifty-eight. Were his siblings blind?

"I'm thirteen Vanya...I'm not old. Why does everyone keep saying that?" Five said slowly standing up.

Vanya frowned. "Are you okay?"

Okay? Why did everybody ask him that! He was okay, it was his siblings who didn't make sense. He decided to cut straight to the chase. He needed answers and he didn't care how rude he came across. She had to know something.

"The apocalypse, do you know something about it?" Five said to her. He expected her to laugh and say that he was crazy or even ask what he was talking about but instead Vanya stiffened, and for once he recognized her posture.

She had hunched herself over like the Vayna of his childhood and bit her lip as she answered him.

"Don't remind me Five. If you think I’ve forgotten everything I haven’t, I know the apocalypse was me."

=

"Allison you're going to have to run it by me again." Klaus said blinking slowly as he stared at her.

Allison pinched the bridge of her nose. She was tired, she had tried explaining to him last night but with Five asleep and the night drawing closer; she had decided to put Five to bed, and let Mom take care of him.

Klaus had trailed after them, unsure on what he was supposed to do. They had both agreed to talk about in the morning much to Klaus's protests. So here they were and Klaus still didn't seem to get it.

"Klaus, I've been over this five times now. How many times do I have to tell you?" Allison sighed as she sat down on the sofa.

Klaus frowned as he stood in front of Five's portrait above the fireplace. Allison grimaced, they needed to take it down. Five was no longer missing and it didn't even look like their Five. Their Five...She didn't even know what their Five was now.

"You rumoured Five into believing that he was," Klaus looked at her with his eyes wide.

"Thirteen." Allison continued with a sigh. She really didn't want to go over it a sixth time.

Klaus looked over to one of the seats, mumbling something underneath his breath.

"I don't know Ben..." He said a bit louder. "Fine," He said a moment later with an eyeroll.

Klaus's fists began to appear blue and Ben appeared. Allison almost jumped out of her skin. It had been two years since she had last seen him at the Icarus theatre, and even then it had only been for a couple of minutes. This was perhaps the first time in seventeen years that she had actually seen her dead brother.

He looked older than when he had died, like if he had aged along with them. Maybe that was a side effect of Klaus's power? He was also wearing a leather hoodie, complete with dark black jeans. She had never seen him wear anything like it before so the only thing she could really attest was that it was Klaus's power as well.

"Ben?" She asked startled.

"Hey Allison, I wanted to be included." Ben said with a smile.

Allison wanted to smile back, but she couldn't. Too much had happened over the past day and she was exhausted. She had tried to sleep last night but she had been worried about Five, the constant tossing and turning had left her hair slightly frazzled and the beginning of black bags around her eyes.

"Hi." Allison managed to say and looked at both of them.

Klaus was frowning.

"Okay...why did you rumour the little psycho? I know he's a bit cuckoo sometimes but you've never rumoured him randomly before." Klaus said sharing a look with Ben.

Allison knew she shouldn't been surprised by the body language that the two of them seemed to share. Klaus could see ghosts and Ben had probably been with Klaus since he had died but she still found herself being. This Ben was different to the one she remembered, even by the appearance.

"I didn't mean to, I was drunk and missing Claire. He was sitting there and my drunken mind thought what about if he was kid, and then I rumoured him." Allison whispered the last part. Even admitting it, felt wrong. She really had fucked up.

Klaus frowned before he then smiled.

"Why don't you just rumour him back?" Klaus said.

Ben turned to face him.

"You know for once that's actually not a bad idea." He said. Allison stared at the back of his head.

"Benjamin, I am full of great ideas." Klaus said swiveling his hips.

"You're really not." Ben said. Allison could only assume he had rolled his eyes at their brother.

"You're just jealous." Klaus blew a kiss to him.

"Bite me," Ben replied.

"What do you mean rumour him back?" Allison interrupted, finally finding her voice.

"If you rumoured him to be thirteen, why not rumour him to be fifty eight again?" Klaus said.

Allison shook her head. She couldn't, she could never take her rumours back so even if she did, she didn't think it would work. It might even screw up his mind. The was also the fact that she had worked so hard on not rumouring people but she had done it on her own brother.

"No, I don't think it will work," She finally said with another shake of her head. "I can't take rumours back."

Klaus frowned and even Ben frowned this time.

"So what do we do then?" Klaus questioned. He sat down onto one of the armchairs and frowned again.

Allison thought for a moment. What could they do? She could potentially rumour Five but she really didn't want too and she was afraid of the effects on his mind. What she had done, it was wrong. She had betrayed his trust and she wasn't going to do that again.

"We need to tell him the truth." Allison stated with a nod. Five deserved to know.

"And then what?" Klaus said. "I'm sure he'll believe us. He thinks that he's thirteen right? Ah yes Five you were a time traveling assassin who stopped the apocalypse. However you ended up stuck in your thirteen year old body. I'm sure he'll believe that."

"Klaus is right Allison which is another thing I thought I would never say." Ben mumbled.

"He deserves to know the truth. I rumoured him without his permission. I can't do what I did to Claire to him. I need to make this right." Allison replied.

She had never told Claire that she had rumoured her. She didn't know if Patrick would have told her. In fact Allison didn't know if she could ever tell her daughter, she might lose her even more. However she knew that she needed to tell her when she was old enough to understand, so that she might actually have a real relationship with her daughter. The only way she could think of redeeming herself was talking to Five, and for once when she wanted to Klaus to see sense. He was being his usual self.

Would she have made more progress if she had stayed in the sixties? She knew it wasn’t an ideal time to live, not like it was much better now but it had been slightly worse back then. She knew her siblings were important, they had been there for her younger years but the thing that had really brought her back had been Claire. She couldn’t really mother her though because she was all the way in L.A. She often wondered if Claire even knew what exactly happened between her and her Father, maybe she knew the truth.

Allison looked up to see Ben fading from view, Klaus was trying to keep him there by he was sweating.

“Klaus it’s okay, I said what I had to say.” Ben said with a smile and then he faded away from view. Allison stared at the spot where he had been. Or was still. He probably was wondering why on earth she was staring at him so she moved her gaze back to Klaus.

“Well if we do tell him the truth Allison, it’s on you.” Klaus said with a shrug.

Yes it was on her, her mistake that she had to rectify even if that meant Five demanded that she never spoke to her again. It would hurt since it would be in Five’s usual asshole way that she doubted had changed that much but maybe he would be a little bit more understanding about it? Allison decided that it might be best to go and see if Five was awake so left Klaus in the lounge.

As she exited, she saw Luther coming down the stairs. He stared at her and frowned.

“I think we need to go and check the kitchen.” He said walking straight past her.

“Why?”

“Vanya and Five were both shouting at each other, or at least that’s what it sounded like.”

Allison’s eyes widened. This wasn’t good.


	4. The Truth

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter was really hard to work on, I'm still not a fan of it but perhaps I might come back to edit it and purge it from my soul at some point, I wanted it go one way but it kept going the other way. As for Vanya losing control of her powers, it's one of my personal headcanons that she struggles with control still and is still prone to random outbursts, I imagine it would be hard having all emotions piled into you when you've been on pills your whole life.

The Truth

4

Five took a step back away from Vanya, it sounded ridiculous. Vanya caused the apocalypse? Was she joking?

"You don't have powers." He said looking straight at her.

A flash of hurt went through Vanya's eyes but just like that it was gone. She was looking at Five as if he was something broken, like a vase that had fallen off the top shelf and shattered into half a dozen pieces. Vanya frowned at him, studying him. Five didn't know what to do. She was acting strange; he didn't like it. It was a reminder that she wasn't the sister he knew. She had no powers; he was pretty sure of that.

"Five...have you lost your memory?" She asked with an innocence that he had only ever contributed to her. It was nice to hear that in her voice again.

Five wanted to nod and tell her but he said nothing only jutted out his chin in defiance. He wished he could admit it, yes, his memory had gone but that would mean he was weak. His Father had made sure his children never showed weakness. At least with knowing the date, he knew his Father was dead and he wouldn't have to deal with the man.

"I'm fine." He said through gritted teeth. He wanted to flee but he was confused. Did she really have powers?

Vanya's eyebrows scrunched into a scowl and a glow beamed from her chest. Five scurried backwards as he stared at his sister. Her eyes were glowing white, like that of a zombie in he had read in some comics he had found in the apocalypse. The magazines had hardly survived but they had provided a couple of hours worth of distraction. He had almost made him wish zombies were in the apocalypse, at least he wouldn’t have been alone.

"Five, you're lying." She replied, she sounded distant like she was a ghost and wasn't all there.

He didn't reply, looking at his sister in horror as she the glow from her chest began to become brighter. He pushed his fear down and approached her, looking at the white of her eyes. He made sure that his power was ready, balling his fists. There was a hum of noise coming through his fists that rhymed itself with Vanya’s chest, creating an orchestra.

"Vanya what's going on?" Five raised his voice, hoping that the others would hear.  
Her chest was so bright.

"Your memory's gone so I just wanted to show that I do have powers." Vanya said, sounding like herself although there was an echo in her voice.

"This doesn't make any sense; how do you have powers?" Five whispered.

"If you had your memory you would know, our Father decided that it would be for the best if he kept me on pills." There was disgust in her voice.

"Why would he do that?" Five asked in another whisper. There were more questions rising in his throat, it was clear by the way Vanya's chest was glowing that she had powers, but the apocalypse? He didn't believe she had caused it, or didn't depending on how he looked at the situation with his memory.

Vanya scoffed, something that he wasn't used to. He had always been used to Vanya being quiet but this woman seemed to wear her emotions on her sleeve.

"Because he was scared of me? He treated me like nothing," Vanya's anger was rising and the whole kitchen began to shake. Five watched as the table chairs began to vibrate. He gulped as he watched his sister.

"Vanya!" He shouted, trying to get her attention. However, her eyes were glowing whiter.

She didn't seem to hear him, like the world had become obscured for her.

"He threw me away." She shouted.

The whole room began to shake and the world felt like it was shaking along with it. Five tried to blink towards his sister but as he began to run towards her, he was knocked by an invisible shield. As he was flying back, he then finally understood how his sister would have been able to cause the apocalypse. It was like sound waves. She could control sound, and channel it. He knew that given the chance that any of his siblings could have caused it but they had been trained, albeit badly but still trained. Her powers were raw, unrefined and seemed to respond to her emotions.

Five was slammed against the wall and he felt a dull heavy pain in his back. His vision was cloudy as he tried to stand up, his hand clutching his head. He heard a loud bang and the sound of voices all shouting above each other, most of them were male but he could make out Allison's raised higher than the others.

He couldn't see too much but then felt a hand on his shoulder.

"Five?" A man's voice asked. He didn't know who it belonged to.

"Vanya. Is she okay?" He asked, worried about his sister looking in her general direction.

He heard a loud gasp.

"Five I'm sorry, what have I done?" She whispered. He could make out the silhouettes of people now as his vision cleared.

"It's okay." He said and then looked up at the man who had spoken to him.

He was huge, a foot and a half taller than him with a collared jacket on. He looked up and saw hands that looked grey covered in gloves. Five could make out a clump of blonde hair and a face that he knew would be a mature version of his brother; Luther. It was strange seeing the body he had buried moving and looking at him with concern.

"What happened?" He asked Five.

"Irrelevant." Five replied, moving Luther's hand off his shoulder. He tried to stand up from the wall but wobbled onto his feet. His back was aching so much but he ignored it. It would fade away eventually.

Luther managed to catch him and lift him onto his feet like he weighed absolutely nothing.

He looked around the room to see all of his siblings gathered in the kitchen. Allison stood next to Vanya who was huddled into herself. Vanya was whispering something to herself. Five recognized Klaus watching with a grimace but there was another man in the room that he could only guess was Diego. He was clutching a knife and running his finger up and down the blade with the exact precision that belonged to his other brother. He had long hair as well that didn't really seem to suit it like it was a bad wig that he had brought from a costume store.He had a belt strapped across his sweater full of knives resting above his heart.

Here all his siblings were, alive and full of life. He looked to each of them watching their chests rise and fall. Alive.

"What the hell happened?" Diego asked looking straight at him with a scowl.

Five blinked, Diego had always scowled but this was a scowl that had some sort of resentment.

Before Five could reply, Vanya did for him.

"I think Five's lost his memory," She said with Allison propping her up by the shoulders.

As soon as those words left her lips, all hell broke loose. Luther and Diego's voices raised above everybody else's and even Klaus's laughter filled the air.

"What do you mean-." Luther's voice.

"There's no way in hell-," That was Diego.

The voices began to build as Vanya chimed in. They swirled in the air. A tornado blowing around the room. It was so noisy; he had forgotten about how noisy the world could be. And god be it his wish for silence was strange because why on earth would he wish for the silence of the apocalypse?

He wanted to shout and scream that they were too loud, he was confused but from what it sounded like they had no idea either.

"He didn't know I had-," Vanya's voice mingled into his ears.

Five backed up against the wall trying to hide from the noise. He wanted the quiet, he wanted to shout to tell them that they needed to be quiet. That stubbornness and determination he used to have, had gone swallowed by the apocalypse.

"Everyone just stop!" Allison's voice shouted, echoing around the room. It was salvation.

Five looked up to see her shaking her head, looking at each of her siblings in turn.

"Can't you see that he's scared?" She pointed towards him. Everybody was looking at him with a mixture of grimaces and shocked faces.

Five didn't say anything only stared back, unsure of what he should be doing.

"Fivey, it's okay." Klaus said walking towards him. The taller man looked like he knew what was going on which was a feat in itself. Klaus hardly ever knew what was going on.

Klaus reached out his hand and Five took it, letting himself be taken out of the kitchen. He could feel the rest of his sibling's gazes boring into his back.

Five felt like crying again but he wouldn't cry. Not in front of Klaus. He had seen his now older brother cry plenty of times when they had been the same age. When Klaus had come back from special training, his eyes had been red and his knees stained black. The others had often wondered where his Father took Klaus. Five had been curious and followed them once, straight to a graveyard. Assuming that his Father made Klaus kneel on people's graves trying to summon their ghosts; with his answers, he had left going back to his room. However, when Klaus came back the next day, there was dirt on his face and bruises on his knees, forming purple right underneath his kneecap. Five had vowed to follow them again to see what his brother’s special training really was but a next time never came as he had time traveled the next week, his stubbornness and pride overwhelming him. In fact, he was pretty sure that it was his pride keeping him together.

He followed Klaus into the lounge and noticed for the first time that there was a large portrait of him hanging above the fireplace. He hated it as he stared at it, it was a mockery of his disappearance. His Father was obviously was the one who had hung it up, it was a warning to the others that they couldn't betray their Father or lest they suffer the consequences.

He looked at Klaus who had plonked himself onto the sofa, his legs dangling in the air. Five stood watching his brother, there were questions burning on his tongue.

"Fivey normally I would love attention from a man but you look like you could be my son." Klaus said with a smirk.

Five scowled. "Shut up." He didn't want to be rude but Klaus had never had a filter.

"Ah yes even at thirteen you didn't know patience." Klaus flicked his wrist and then his eyes drifted towards the corner of the room.

Five who had been debating to pester him watched him with another scowl. He knew Klaus could see ghosts, but he wondered if the academy had to have any ghosts running around. Then it clicked.

"Ben," He said aloud in a whisper.

"Ben? Fivey don't tell me you can see him." Klaus almost looked astonished.

"No! He's here, though isn't he?" There was desperation in his voice. Ben might have died but he was still around and would know what was going on, he would explain better than Klaus could.

"Yes, he's a right pain though." Klaus said blowing a kiss to the fireplace.

"Summon him." Five demanded, wanting to see his brother.

"I can't I'm afraid," Klaus said this time sounding more serious.

Now that Five was feeling slightly better he let out a growl of frustration. Klaus was high, of course he was. He remembered reading in Vanya's book how the man had turned to drugs to hide out his demons, so could he really see Ben or was Klaus lying? Five felt a little hurt by that, his brother had lied to him before but this was different.

“You’re lying.” He stared at Klaus trying to hide his quivering lip.

"I'm not, I already exhausted my power earlier. He wanted to talk to Allison." Klaus replied with a shrug. He decided to sit up and the sofa and held his brother's gaze.

"I'm not lying, Five. Not when you're like this," Klaus trailed off.

Five who had frankly had enough of all the secrets his siblings seemed to know let out a groan of frustration.

"What do you mean like this? Have I actually lost my memory?" He asked, a pleading tone entering his voice.

He got his answer but in the form of Diego bursting into the lounge shouting, "You rumour him back right now!".

=

Allison followed her siblings into the lounge after Diego's outburst. She couldn't stop seeing their faces and the way they had looked at her. Luther had been distraught full well knowing that she had tried to be a better person, had tried to control her power. Vanya had been a little confused trying to figure out why on earth she had done it. Diego had been angry, and now here they were piling into the lounge and scaring Five once again.

"Diego, I need to explain to him first." Allison said softly looking at the boy.

He was looking at Diego with a measure of annoyance and curiosity, the two emotions fighting to have control of his face.

"Please explain, Allison. So far nothing has made sense, everybody keeps calling me old and the last thing I can remember is sitting by your...your graves,"

Allison watched as Five struggled to get the last word out, his whole body shaking. She had seen plenty of dead bodies and killed her fair share of men and women, mostly criminals in her superhero days but she had never seen someone she cared about dead. The thought passed through her head, Claire lying dead in rubble next to Five. She swallowed and shook her head trying to drown out the images in her head.

"Five, I didn't mean to it I was drunk and missing Claire and you were sitting there looking so childlike, I couldn't help myself and rumoured you into thinking you were a kid." Allison finally admitted. She had expected for the confession to feel like a weight had been taken off her shoulders but instead it felt like several bricks had come crashing through the ceiling to knock her over.

Five tried to laugh but it came out raspy and quiet.

"But I am a kid, I can't be anything else." Five was looking at them all as if they had grown three heads.

"You're really 58, you spent 45 years in the apocalypse that I caused." Vanya said crossing her arms over. She looked so small when she talked about what she had done. "Which I'm sorry for because I did that to you." She buried her head into her hands. Allison walked towards her and began to rub her back.

"45 years? No that's not true...," Five was studying his hands. "I would have wrinkles; I would look old."

"You were old but then you time travelled back and said you messed up an equation which meant your body become thirteen again." Luther said so straightforward that Allison was pretty sure even she would have a hard time believing all of this when it was said like that.

Five creased his brow.

"But how would I get back? I couldn't get back before. This makes less sense than losing my memory!" The boy protested, his eyes flickering to each of his siblings.

Allison could feel the mother in her, she wanted to reach out and hug him. However, she couldn't do that because one, even though this Five was thirteen he could probably rip her arm off if he really wanted.

"You worked with an organization called the commission, who monitor the time-line and make sure it's secured. They took you out of the apocalypse." Diego said, leaning against the wall.

Allison noticed how he skipped past the crimes of Five's past. She personally didn't know how many people he had killed or what he had really done to get back to them and she was afraid that if they told him any more he might break.

He was shaking again, looking almost feverish with the way his eyes darted around the room reading his sibling's expressions.

"Bullshit. That's all bullshit." He muttered playing with the sleeve of his blazer.

"Language young man!" Klaus cried out.

"I don't care, I get that Vanya has powers and that she caused the apocalypse but as to the reason I got home that's ridiculous!" He shouted, there was raging seething underneath the boy, but it was unstained nothing like the rage of his 45 year old self who had had time to mellow out.

"Five, it's not, because I rumoured you. I'm the reason you don't remember anything."

The look of disbelief on Five's face hurt Allison, he looked so confused and scared. She couldn't imagine being in his situation that she had brought upon him.

"I don't believe you." He scowled looking at each of his siblings again.

She watched as Diego sighed deeply looking at his younger brother.

"Fine if you don't believe us, just let Allison rumour you back to normal."

Five shook his head. "Nobody is rumouring me; I'm leaving." And with that he blinked out of the room, the sound of his powers the only evidence that he had ever been there.

"God damn it Five!" Diego shouted throwing a knife at the sofa with a quick flick of his wrist. Klaus scooted away with a shriek. Diego then turned to Allison.

"This is your fault, when we find him we are setting this right."

"Maybe you should ask him want he wants instead Diego, I'm not forcing to do something against his will." Allison moved, standing her ground. She was not being told what to by her brother with a hero complex.

Diego let out a bark of laughter.

"Yeah you're not. I'm going to find him."

Allison didn't move knowing that Five needed his space, he would be found when he wanted to be found. That's how children were, if they wanted attention they would come back although in Five's case he wasn't a normal child.

Diego left the room followed closely by Luther who looked like a lost puppy trying to follow its owner.

"As far as things go in this family, that could have been a lot worse." Klaus mentioned from where the glass table where he was sitting cross legged.

"An angry Diego and an angry Five? They might well cause the third apocalypse."

Allison said trying to bring humour into the room but it broke away, the wisps splaying out onto the ground.

She looked at Vanya who had stayed quiet, she was biting her nails a habit that she had never really gotten out ever since she had been young.

"Vanya, are you okay?" She asked placing her hands on her shoulder and looking down at him with a smile that didn't feel like it belonged on Allison's face.

"I don't know," Vanya said pushing her hands off. "This is the Five that I used to know. He's just a kid, and a real kid this time... it's different actually seeing him act like one."

Allison knew exactly what she meant. When Five had first arrived on the day of their Father's funeral, they had all been surprised seeing him look exactly the same although he was swimming in a black suit. It was that black suit that had helped her believe that he wasn't a kid anymore. Five had always been someone who took pride in appearance so the fact that he would have been wearing something far too big for him didn't make sense. She supposed the way he had talked and acted, acting a lot more like an asshole had also helped her to believe. Although she had never been close with him as kids, he had still been the one to stand up for himself and his Father, even Vanya on occasion. However, the mockery of a boy that had come back was someone who she assumed that had been weathered down by the acylase. However now, he was similar to the boy in her memory although he seemed more prone to his emotions.

"If he does eventually believe us, do you think he will want to go back to normal?" Allison asked. She was sure that deep down a part of him believed them but it would probably take some more convincing.

"I don't know." Vanya said looking at Allison.

Vanya had always been Five's favourite ever since they were kids. That clearly hadn't changed and she might have been the best person for him to listen to. Allison found herself thinking about whether he knew she had a daughter and it hurt. Claire. She hadn't even tried to talk to her today because of everything that had happened with Five.

Allison decided to leave Vanya and Klaus as they had both started a conversation that she felt rude interrupting. She walked into dimly lit hallway and saw Five. He hadn’t gone far at all. He was sitting on the stairs, sock lined knees tucked up into his chest. His head was resting on top of them, gaze looking down at the stairs. She knew she needed to call Claire, but perhaps she could actually get through to him?

"Five?" Allison whispered, not wanting to scare him.

"You're not going to tell Diego and Luther I'm here are you?" He asked looking up at her with tear stained eyes.

"No, have they found you yet?" She asked and walked to the banister. She hovered, wondering if she should sit down on the other steps beside him.

"They almost did but why are you here?" He asked wiping a few tears away.

"I was going to call Claire- she's my-,"

"Daughter. I know." Five interrupted.

That surprised Allison, she knew the older version knew but she hadn't expected the younger one to know.

"How do you know?" She asked drumming her fingers on top of the bannister's, small bits of dust flew up and onto the floor and where she had laid her fingers, it left fingerprints.

"I read it in Vanya's book." Five said.

"I forgot she wrote that in there..." Allison muttered.

"Is she nice?" Five asked and moved his head off his knees.

"She is, she will talk your head off though." Allison laughed.

Five almost smiled at that, almost smiled as the corners of his face quickly turned into a frown again.

"Is it true?" He asked. "That you rumoured me?" His breathing was heavy again like he was trying to calm himself down.

"Yes, and for the record I'm sorry." Allison said deciding at that moment to sit down on the step below him.

"If," She caught how Five's voice broke. "If it's true and I spent 45 years there, 45 years trapped there and I'm really old..." He moved a step down and sat next to her. "Can't you just rumour me back to how I was?"

"I can try but I'm not sure if it will work, is that what you really want me to do?" Allison said, looking at his younger brother.

"Yes, I want to know how I survived for 45 years in the apocalypse. I--, I thought that I would only be there for a few more months or at worst a few years not 45." He was crying into his hands and tears were falling onto the wooden stairs, staining them.

Allison wrapped her arm around the boy and he leaned against her and she let her younger brother cry into her shoulder making her top sticky and wet from his tears.

The two of them stayed like that, hearing Diego's shouts coming from down below and then the sound of car doors slamming. Not once had he come to check the hallway where Five was.

"Do you want to talk to Claire with me?" Allison asked, remembering how the older version of Five wanted to meet her daughter.

"Does she know who I am?" Five asked.

"Yes, now come on." Allison lifted him up by the arm surprised at how light he was.

Five looked surprised but his eyes were alight with a childlike wonder that she hadn't seen since Claire had been taken from her.

He followed her to the phone and she dialed the number, her breathing becoming heavier. She would hate if Patrick picked up the phone, she didn't want to explain to Five why he couldn't speak to his niece when he seemed to have cheered up. The phone dialed until a voice came through.

"Hello?" Allison almost dropped the receiver. It was Claire's voice.


	5. Who He Truly Is

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the last chapter before the plot sets in and things are gonna go angsty and haywire!

Who He Truly Is

5

“Claire,” Allison breathed, her eyes welled up with tears as she heard her daughter’s voice. The voice she hadn’t heard in two years. 

“Mommy is that you?” Claire asked, she sounded excited.

“Yes it is.” Allison replied feeling a smile radiating onto her lips. She could see Five watching her, a corner of his lip turning into a smile. 

“Daddy said I’m not supposed to talk to you.” Claire said, her voice becoming quieter. 

Allison held in the bitter laugh she felt rising in her throat because of course Patrick would tell Claire that. She had to remind herself, that he was only trying to keep their daughter safe from her.

“I know sweetheart but let’s keep this a secret from Daddy, okay?” Allison said, hoping that her daughter would agree with her.

“Okay, it can be our secret.” Claire said back, her whisper coming through the phone line and raising the hair on Allison’s arms.

“Well I have somebody who wants to talk to you,” Allison looked back at Five who was fiddling with his tie. He looked up, his young eyes wide and happy. Allison wished the older version of him looked like this but when he went back to normal, well he would be back to his sarcastic and asshole self again. 

“Spaceboy?” Claire’s voice was hopeful and Allison recalled the conversation that Claire had with Luther over two years ago, it must have only been a couple of weeks ago for Claire. Time travel was strange in that way, she had lived two more years than her daughter but for her daughter, time had stayed the same. She looked back at Five and thought about all those years he had lived in the apocalypse, he had lived twenty eight years more than them but had they really been living at all? 

“No. Do you remember that story I told you about Uncle Five?” Allison asked, she didn’t know if her daughter would remember. It had been one of the first stories she had told Claire, although she had illustrated the truth quite a little.

“Uncle Five? Didn’t he go time traveling to save the world?” Claire asked. Allison remembered the story that she had told Claire, she had only been three at the time and wanted an adventure about the uncles and aunt that she had never met before. Allison had begun with the story about the infamous breakfast and about Five having a flare for the dramatic, wanting to time travel. If she remembered correctly, she had mentioned that he had ran out of the door, and didn’t come back because he had gotten wind of some evil doing. It had had been made up on the stop because she didn’t want to tell her niece that he had gone missing for years and nobody had known what had happened to him. It was almost ironic that he had been trying to save the world.

“Is he back?” She could hear Claire bouncing up and down on the sofa. She imagined her jumping up and down, several of the pillows falling onto the wooden floor.

“Yes he is, do you want to talk to him?” She looked at Five who was staring at her with his wide green eyes.

“Yes! Put him on Mommy!” Claire laughed again.

Allison moved the phone away from her ear and passed it to Five. He frowned as he picked the receiver up, put it to his ear and came to stand next to her.

“Hello?” He asked unsure. 

Allison moved closer to the line so that she could hear Claire on the other end, her excitement picking up as soon as she heard Five’s voice.

“Hello! Are you my Uncle Five?” She asked.

Five let out a small laugh.

“I am, Claire.”

“You know my name! You sound really young aren’t you supposed to be the same age as Mommy?” Five looked to Allison and they both exchanged a grimace. Of course Claire would have picked up on his voice, it hadn’t even broke yet, his voice cracking on every other word. He did sound young. Allison tried to think of what they could say, but Five beat her to it.

“Time travel.” He answered simply, because that was the truth wasn’t it? Time travel and it was confusing enough to make anyone’s head spin.

“Did you come back from saving the world? Mommy said you went! How old are you?” Claire almost shouted it down the line. Five shot Allison a quick glance, she wasn’t sure of what to make of it and the only thing she could really think of was that he had questions, probably more questions to his situation that he previously thought.

“I guess, I’m thirteen.” He said, although he didn’t sound sure of himself anymore. 

“You’re near my age!” There was a pause from the other end. “I need to go, Daddy’s back. Mommy I love you!” She shouted down the phone and there was a slam then quiet. Allison stared at the phone clutched into Five’s hand. Claire was gone and she wasn’t sure when the next time would be when she got to speak to her own daughter.

“She’s gone…” Five muttered as he put the phone down. “Why did she have to put the phone down when her Dad came?” He asked turning to look at her.

Allison gulped. She knew the questions would come, to tell Five of one of her mistakes that she was still learning from. 

“I’m in the middle of a divorce with my ex-husband.” She felt the bitterness rise in her throat. It happened whenever she talked about Patrick and it was hard to hide the hate in her voice from Five, but he clocked onto it. 

“You’re in a divorce?” He asked, sounding surprised.

“Yes, I don’t know when it will be finished.” Allison muttered looking at the phone again, wishing by some magic that it would ring and Claire’s voice would be there again. 

“Why is he divorcing you?” Five asked. Allison groaned inwardly, that was the question she had wanted to avoid however she couldn’t blame Five for being curious, it just reminded her of the beginning of her mistakes. Where everything had gone wrong. 

She frowned before replying. “He saw me rumouring Claire, I messed up. She was having a tantrum and I wanted her to go to sleep-,” She looked away from Five. She didn’t want to see his eyes or his face and watch the judgment pass onto his features.

“Wait, you rumoured Claire?” There was only surprise in his voice, nothing else.

“It was habit, I started when she was three. I would do it whenever she had a tantrum, or I couldn’t control her. It got too much and he saw. Who can blame him? I think I would do the same.” Allison said, feeling the hurt pounding in her heart. She was allowed to feel hatred towards her ex-husband but he had only done everything for Claire’s sake. She knew she would have done exactly the same, if he had been the one rumouring her daughter but it still hurt to have her daughter taken away from her. The phantom pain ached in her heart. 

“Oh,” Five said shuffling his foot. “Will he allow you to see her again?” He asked.

Allison let out a laugh, it held no humour in it. “Considering I didn’t make the mandatory therapy, no. He’s threatening to take away the visitation rights that I don’t even have.” 

“That sucks.” Five mumbled shuffling his feet again.

Allison turned around, she knew how difficult this was for Five. He didn’t know much about her personal life, neither did much of her family. She should have shared more but how could she even bring all up of this up without feeling judged by the others? The only other person who knew was Luther.

“Yeah, I guess it sucks. If only I could go back in time.” She ran a hand through her hair and let it rest there for a moment.

“You can’t really change the past, we can only keep moving forward.” Five said quietly. The irony of someone who had the ability to time travel saying that but Five was right.

“You know when you say that, you do sound like a old man.” Allison covered her mouth when she realised what she had said. This Five wasn’t old. 

He grimaced and clenched his fists. Her first thought was that he was going to jump away but he flexed his fingers and looked at her.

“About that… can you rumour me back tomorrow?”

Allison blinked, she didn’t think he would have wanted to be rumoured so soon.

“Why tomorrow?” She inquired, almost a little hesitant to continue.

“Because I want today to just be myself before I go back to normal.” He quoted normal with quotation marks in the air. Five’s stomach then began to rumble, the sound echoing through the empty hallway. “And maybe go somewhere to eat as a family?” 

“Like where?” Allison asked.

“Griddy’s?” Five said, sounding happy. 

Griddy’s. That one word took Allison straight back to being thirteen again. When all seven of them had sneaked out to get doughnuts, the three nights they had dared to feel like actual kids before going back to their depressing reality. It had actually been Five’s idea at the time, spirits had all been pretty low at the academy because of the extra training their Father had put them through. After their first mission, he had scolded them because of the mess they had made. Their reward hadn’t been any praise, no it had been extra hard training that had almost broken all of them. Luther had even thought about how their Father was being slightly unfair, which had been so rare for him back then. So with all of them feeling terrible, Five had come in to them one by one asking if they had wanted to go somewhere. Somehow he had convinced all of them and brought Vanya as long as well. It might have been the first time they had all hung out together properly that night. Five had taken them out one by one to Griddy’s. They had all ordered the biggest donuts on the menu, they had felt sick to their stomach that day but it had made them feel better. Allison found herself missing those days, if Five had never left and Ben had never died, maybe they might have been happier. Well as happy as you could be with an abusive asshole Father.

“We’re going to have to round everybody up and sort out the Diego situation.” Allison recalled, he had gone somewhere probably looking for Five but hopefully wouldn’t be too long.

“Is there a reason Diego’s so angsty?” Five asked looking at Allison with a raised eyebrow.

“I wouldn’t say he’s angsty. He’s been like that for the past two weeks, he hasn’t told anybody why.” Allison replied with a shrug.

Diego had spent time with them yes, but he also spent most of the day out of the house, his car not often returning late into the night. If Allison didn’t have any other things going on at the moment then she might have seen what was wrong but they all had their own trauma to deal with. They were all together as a family again, and had started to try and do some family bonding. However it was debatable how well that family bonding was actually going. 

“Has anyone asked him?” Five said.

“I guess not. Why do you ask?” Allison answered, looking at him. He was shuffling his feet again as if he was unsure about what to do with himself.

“Well it’s just-,” She watched as he cheeks began to redden and he hid his head away from her sight of field. 

“You care.” She said with a smile. It was such a rare thing, to see that Five cared.

“No,” He sputtered looking up. “It’s not that.” He looked down again.

Allison let out laughter. Five cared, when he put his mind to it. The boy did actually care. She stopped laughing as soon as she saw that his cheeks were getting red again. 

The Five that she recalled from her past had always been loud and boisterous. He was someone who had a certain lack of disdain for his family, he didn’t associate with them much when they couldn’t keep up with him academically or even powerwise. The only people he had really bothered with had been Vanya and Ben, or even Klaus on occasion. When she was young she had never really cared or even bothered with Five that much. To her, he had simply been the one sibling who she tolerated now and again. However there were times when he stood up to their Father and his defiance showed, despite his punishment always being severe he still stood up to him. It was one of the many qualities that she admired about him although she would never tell him that, not even now when he was staring at her with impossibly young eyes. 

“Shall we round people up?” She asked and began to walk back towards the lounge. The low murmurs of Vanya and Klaus coming from the living room. 

“Yes, we should.” Five said with a smile.

=

As it turned out rounding all of their siblings up turned to be quite a challenging task. The easiest part had been Klaus and Vanya who hadn’t moved. Luther had gone upstairs, he had taken some convincing but it had been Diego who had proved the problem. He hadn’t come back yet and Five was getting a little wound up. He didn’t know how long he had been sitting here, his heart hammering in his chest. Anything could have happened to his brother. He wanted to keep them all his line in sight, so he could keep proving to himself that this wasn’t a dream. Much to his relief though, they all heard the front door slam and heavy footsteps caused by Diego’s boots. He appeared in the doorway and rolled his eyes when he saw Five.

“So you stayed here then.” He muttered, crossing his arms.

“Yes. Where else would I go?” Five asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Well normally you’re a slippery little shit, I didn’t expect you to actually stay.” Diego rolled his eyes. He sounded defeated, not anything like the feisty Diego from earlier. It weirded Five out a little but what would he know, this might have been Diego’s personality now.

“I talked to Five. I’m going to rumour him back to normal tomorrow. He wants us to go all eat together at Griddy’s before I do.” Allison said looking at all of the siblings in the lounge. Vanya and Klaus were sitting together on the sofa, Luther standing by Five’s portrait. The three of them agreed with nods of their heads. 

“Griddy’s?” Diego scoffed. “Griddy’s is gone.” 

Those three words hurt Five more than he ever thought they could. Griddy’s was gone? 

He swallowed the lump in his throat. “What do you mean gone?” He hated how small and broken his voice sounded. 

Diego looked at him, frowning in the process. 

“The whole building was blown up a couple of weeks back. The whole place is closed off.” 

“But why?” Five asked, his voice sounding smaller. How could someone blow up a doughnut shop? 

“I’m not too sure. Could have been Hazel or Cha-Cha when they tried to stop the apocalypse. They did go there once.” Diego brought out one of his knives with his gloved hand and clamped down onto it. “At least Cha-Cha’s not snooping around anymore.”

Five blinked. He had no idea who on earth Hazel and Cha-Cha were and the way Diego was staring at him made him think his brother still thought that he knew who they were. 

“I forgot you don’t know who they are. They worked at the same place you did.” Diego put his knife away, looking across at Five.

The Commission. Five remembered that name from earlier. Why on earth would those people blow the doughnut shop? It had nothing to do with the apocalypse. His heart hurt a lot at the thought of Griddy’s being destroyed because that had been one of the places that he had wanted to go again. The last time all of his siblings had been together, and had been happy away from their Father had been those three nights at Griddy’s. 

“Maybe we should go somewhere else, there’s got to be another doughnut shop somewhere?” Vanya asked. She looked at Five and offered a smile which he didn’t return.

“It won’t be the same.” He muttered looking at the portrait of himself as the fire roared underneath it. The flames licking the grate, sprawling out of it. Five starred, feeling himself seeing the flames of the apocalypse when he first jumped. He could feel himself going back there, a scream in his throat. Then there was a hand on his shoulder. He looked up to see Allison watching him with a frown.

“Why won’t it be the same?” She asked, concern in her features.

The concern made Five’s skin crawl a little, he wasn’t used to Allison acting so motherly.

“Because it’s Griddy’s.” He mumbled knocking her hand of his shoulder.

She frowned.

“Because it’s Griddy-Oh.” She sighed as the realization took hold upon her. “It’s because we all went there as kids, how long ago was that for you with your memory?”

Five thought about it for a moment. It hadn’t been that long ago in his current state. 

“Four or five months ago?” He said looking up at her, he dared a glance at his siblings and the looks on their faces were sad, even Diego’s.

“Oh Five, no wonder you wanted to go there.” Allison said, the smile wiping off her face. 

Five shoved his hands back into his pockets and tried to show a faux pas of confidence. 

“It doesn’t matter, it was probably a dump after so long anyway.” Five said not looking at his siblings and tried to hide the pain in his eyes. He had been looking forward to eating a doughnut, he remembered the waitress had always brought him the best, the jam filling had been heavenly. He had craved something sweet for so long, he wanted to taste the sugary donuts. He had missed tasting sugary things in the apocalypse. He wanted to know if he could still eat sugar and if it would help his powers. He had never really understood it that much, maybe it was to do with calories because he could always go a lot faster when he did have sweet things.

“Maybe we should go somewhere else, find a new place?” Vanya suggested.

Five knew they were going to have to choose a place but there was something inherently sad about going to a new place. When he was back to normal, would he even remember any of this? That had been scaring him the most, that he would forget that he was ever thirteen. Allison had never really done anything like this to anyone, or at least he knew of so what would happen? Would he wake up as his other self and wouldn't recall anything at all? He knew that he wanted to go back to normal so he could get his memory back but the thought still scared him. He listened as the siblings debated about where to go. He was trying to think, his head pounding. There had been another place, he was thinking of going instead of Griddy’s. The place they could have gone back when his siblings were all young but they had gone to Griddy’s instead. 

“There’s a small diner on the other end of the city. We could go there if it’s still standing.” He said with a shrug. He looked at Vanya as he said it and she was giving him a big wide smile.

“Oh you mean that little diner on 3rd Avenue?” Klaus said waving his hands.

“Yes, how do you know about it?” Five asked with a frown.

“Back when Dad kicked me out of the academy, I did one of my first shoot ups there behind the alley. The staff were kind enough to give me some free food. I always did want to go back.” Klaus said it as if it was normal. It hurt Five to know that his Father had kicked Klaus out with nowhere to go. He almost wished his older self had traveled back to when they had been kids, to stop Ben from dying, to stop Klaus from taking drugs. He wondered why he hadn’t, if he knew how to time travel that far back he would but he couldn’t and there was no changing that. 

“Do you know where is it Klaus?” Luther asked. 

“Yes if it’s still there, so are we going on a family outing with Fivey?” He walked over to Five and draped his arms around him. Five stumbled a little as he tried to hold the both of him.

“You’re heavy get off.” Five muttered trying to shove him off with his shoulders and his hands. Klaus didn’t listen and latched tighter to his younger brother. Five had never really been one much for physical affection but when he wanted it, he would reach out for it. Right now Klaus was annoying him but the way Klaus latched onto him, it seemed almost desperate. It was probably the whole reason why Five hadn’t blinked away. There was something bothering Klaus but he didn’t want to say. Perhaps Five could ask him about it later. 

“No Five, let me love you!” Klaus drawled on like he was a child wanting attention.

Five grumbled and try to cross his hands but when he realised Klaus’s arms were in the way, he left them by his sides. 

“Why won’t you get off.” He mumbled under his breath knowing full well that Klaus wouldn’t be able to hear him.

“Your other self would kill right now. Can’t we keep this Five?” Klaus batted his eyelashes at Allison who rolled her eyes.

That had had been bothering Five. What was his older self like? Was he the same person, or was he completely different? He found it really difficult to comprehend that his older self had come back into his thirteen year old body. That must have been so strange, right now he felt at home in his body but he knew tomorrow that would change. His stomach growled this time and he felt the physical pain that came with it. He looked over to Allison who was smiling at him, the mothering smile that he wasn’t sure what to think about. She was his sister and although she had a daughter, it didn’t mean that he was a replacement for her child.

“Well are we going to get some food or not?” Allison said, as she started to leave the room with Diego following closely behind her. 

“I should go start up the car.” Luther muttered and he walked away out of the room Five’s eyes followed him then down to Five's stomac. His stomach hurting it, it made him think of what it had been like in the apocalypse. He needed some food and fast. He was trying to think of the last time of when he had ate and he couldn’t recall anything. To his relief, Klaus let go of him and walked out of the lounge. His stomach growled again and he clutched at it. He squeezed his eyes shut, trying to ignore the pain. He had felt it before and he could get through it. He heard rustling and looked up to see Vanya holding an energy bar.

“Here, eat it while we go to the car.” She said shoving it into his hands.

“Thanks.” Five said starting to open it. The rustling of the wrapper sounded so loud to his ears. 

Vanya smiled and he followed her out of the lounge.


	6. It's Complicated

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I've listened to a lot of J City pop while I was writing this. If you've never listened to it. Please do! It will change your life.
> 
> tumblr: guardianofdust

6

It’s Complicated

Allison couldn’t believe what she was looking at. Yes it was a diner but a diner that was outdated probably around forty years ago, let alone seventeen. The winds were tinted in a layer of thin grime that Klaus ran his fingers through and drew a smiley face that looked so out of place that Allison wanted to laugh. The diner itself was as Five said located out of the city tucked in between a junkyard, where a foul smell emanated from it, and an abandoned car factory. The pieces of the cars looked like dark towers under the grey sky. It was backed onto an alleyway that Allison assumed Klaus had been talking about. This was no place to bring a child let alone anyone.

  
The diner’s parking lot had two cars in it, including theirs and a few abandoned shopping carts upturned, the wheels occasionally turning with a squeak as the wind passed over them. The building was very reminiscent of the sixties, it reminded Allison of the sits in and the man who had poured coffee over her. She shook her head, trying to ignore that the shaky memories that wanted to overwhelm her.

  
She looked over to Five, he was staring at the diner with either a look of guilt or remorse.

  
“It’s a,” He began looking at the door that was crooked and looked like it was about to break off its hinges. The diner, despite having large windows was hard to see into because of the grime and let alone the dim lighting that emanated from inside.

  
“A shithole.” Diego finished scuffing his steel cap boot into the ground.

  
“Maybe we could go somewhere else?” Luther suggested as he shut Hermes’s door. The car looked out of place, just like them. Allison had never really known where she belonged. With Claire? With Ray? Or even with her family? She had hoped it would have been all three but that was a far cry from reality. She could only really have one of them at a time. She did plan to work on getting to see Claire, but it was hard when her ex-husband was trying to do everything in his power to stop her.

  
“No we came all this way for Five. It might be better inside.” Vanya said heading towards the door.

“Yeah I hope.” Five said rubbing his neck.

  
It turned out that it was not in fact better inside. It was dim and Allison could hardly see five feet in front of her. The upholstery was basic, leathered seats with fraying holes and stained plastic tables. There was light jazz music playing, coming from some speakers hung above the entranceway. There were two people inside, a man who was slumped over a table, various glasses surrounded him. One or two were knocked over, the liquid, probably beer, seeping into the floor creating a small puddle by his feet.

  
The other person was a woman standing near the entrance. She looked up when she heard the bell ring and saw the six of them. She was in her late forties with blond hair that flounced when she walked. Her apron had a printed logo of a waffle holding a spatula and frying something on a stove that Allison couldn’t make out.

  
“Well we don’t get a lot of customers here,” She said to them. Her smile was all teeth. “Especially a large group like yours, do you guys want a table?”

  
“Yes, a booth maybe?” Allison asked before any of the others could.

The woman looked at her for a second and then shook her head muttering, “Can’t be.” Under her breath.

  
She let them near the bar to a booth which could easily sit the six of them. They all piled in and she ended up sitting in the middle next to Vanya and Five. Diego, Luther and Klaus sat on the opposite side. Luther and Diego didn’t look very pleased that they were sat next to each other.

  
“I’ll go and get some menus.” She said and disappeared towards the back.

  
Allison looked over to Luther as he picked up the cutlery, his hands dwarfing the knife and fork. Klaus laughed as he picked up a napkin and began to fold the edges over.

  
“You sure know how to pick places. Five.” Klaus said looking as he carried on folding the edges over.

  
“It didn’t look like this 17 years ago.” Five muttered.

  
“I know, I don’t remember it looking like this either.” Klaus agreed with him.

  
The woman returned and handed out the menus, Five had now buried his head into it.

  
She looked at her's and grimaced. There was a grease stain obscuring several of the foods. In the end she choose a burger and fries, not knowing if anything would taste any good. One by one, each of the siblings ordered and the woman wrote it down in her notepad, her pen working like clockwork. The only who hadn’t ordered yet was Five, his eyes constantly scouring over the words.

  
“Hurry up Five! Or do you want a coffee?” Klaus said as he finished crafting his origami bird and placed it into the middle of the table.

  
Five looked over at him.

  
“Why on earth would I want coffee?” He muttered.

“If you’re struggling to order sweetie, I got something special that Dave can cook up. It’s been a long time since we had someone your age, that okay?”

  
Allison watched how Klaus tense at the name but her gaze turned back to Five, his face processing the woman’s words like they were a mathematical equation.

  
“Fine, as long as you don’t poison me.” He said with a shrug.

  
The woman laughed at his blatant rudeness.

  
“Don’t worry, Dave’s the best chef. If he wanted to kill you, he wouldn’t do it through his food.” She said with a very morbid laugh, grabbing the menus and disappearing again. Allison didn’t really want to find out what crimes Dave had committed.

Five scowled and leaned back into his seat looking very much like the moody teenager he was at the moment.His eyes drifted over to the bird and Allison felt like she was being judged as she stared at it.

  
“Klaus what’s with the damn bird?” Diego asked, pointing at it.

  
“It’s a gift for Five.” Klaus said with a wave. “I’ve been getting into origami to distract myself from the drugs. It’s done wonders for my concentration-,”

  
Allison tuned him out. She could see out of the corner of eye how much Diego and Luther were really enjoying Klaus’s rambling.

  
“I don’t want the bird.” She heard Five mutter to himself.

  
The bird stayed on the table, a silent companion watching them.

  
“Five. Are you sure you don’t want to change your mind, we don’t know what the chef’s giving you?” Vanya shooting Five a strained smile.

  
The boy shrugged. “It’s food. I didn’t really have a choice about food in the apocalypse.”

  
“Oh Five, I’m sorry,” Vanya said. A wave of familiarity washed over Allison, she sounded like the old Vanya it was almost scary.

  
“You don’t need to apologise Vanya, you’ve done enough of that.” Five said with a smile that he would never have had on his face if he was his older self.

  
Allison had often wondered if Five would ever talk about his time in the apocalypse, he had never really been one for talking but even now it was quite clear that the subject made him uncomfortable. However she could see how it had shaped him, she supposed one week would have been enough to affect anyone, let alone four months of forty-five years.

  
He needed some help to get through it and that was difficult because Five was the sort of person who thought he could could do everything by himself. Maybe she would talk to him when they were alone again and suggest therapy, but if he was his older self tomorrow would he even want that? The short answer was no but the longer answer more complicated, and complex. When they had first come back from the sixties to find the mansion standing, Five had reached for the newspaper and found the date sitting at the top, closely and like an old friend. _2nd April 2019,_ that date had been like a song that washed through them, liberating them.

  
They had spent the night playing music through the house from Luther’s record player. There had been laughter and dancing, and alcohol or else Five would have probably stayed in his room. He had stayed watching them with a strained smile on his face, occasionally sipping his wine looking at them. None of them had asked or brought him to dance or else they would risk losing a finger and that was something neither of them had wanted.

  
However he had disappeared at the point where the music had become louder thumping through the house. Allison had needed to go the bathroom and headed upstairs to find him crouched over the stairs, his head clutched into his hands. She had tried to touch him but he had growled, and blinked away with a simple ‘Don’t touch me.’ There were many moments like that over the next coming and before Allison had rumoured him she remembered the most recent.

  
She had a tough day, dealing with a phone call of Patrick because of course she had, it was late and she was heading to bed when Five had blinked in front of her. He hadn’t noticed her in the dark, frantically searching for something. She couldn’t remember what he had said but she was sure it was under the lines of ‘where’s the food?’. Allison hadn’t touched him but he had reached out for a second on to her sweater. It was then that he had seemed to snap out of the trance, frowned down at where his hand was and then disappear again.

  
If she could help him anyway she could, she was sure her family would do the same. It was hard to admit but looking at him chatting with Vanya. It made her happy. The only person was missing was Claire and then she would feel complete.

  
Their food arrived around half an hour after an argument between Luther and Diego. They had quickly stopped when Five had been staring at them.

  
Much to her relief’s Allison burger and fries looked relatively normal, well probably normal at a fast food restaurant. She had been expecting the fries to be all crusty. However the taste would be a different story.

  
As the woman handed out the rest of the dishes from her plate, Five’s was the last. It was a gigantic pizza, the cheese oozing off the plate. As she placed it in front of the boy, Allison could see that his face had turned green.

  
They had never been allowed pizza as children, it always had to be healthy and nutritious meals. On the rare occasion that they had been allowed sugary snacks or drinks they had snuck out and bought themselves. Their Father had often believed that food with sugary snacks would often lead to ill behaved children. It was this belief that Allison would have thought that Five would be ecstatic with the idea of pizza, something he must not have ever had in recent memory. It was something that every child dreamed off, the gooey richness running down their throat. Five on the other hand, was looking even queasier.

  
“What’s the matter? Cat got your tongue?” The woman joked in front of him.

  
Five tried to swallow but only stared at the looming pizza in front of him.

  
“You’re a growing boy! Enjoy the pizza! I’ll be back to check on you all later.” The woman said and left them to their meals.

  
Allison looked at her brother, could this be to do with the apocalypse? His relationship with food wasn’t very good? Her inner mother in her was telling her to help him eat, but how could she do that without interfering too much.

  
“It’s massive.” Five mumbled staring at the pizza as if he was going to disappear in front of him.

  
“You don’t have to eat it all, even I’ve got to admit that’s way too much food.” Vanya said taking a bite out of her pasta dish.

  
Allison looked down at her fries and began to pick them up one by one. They tasted fine, but not something that screamed five star quality. The burger was the same as she took delicate bites from it, trying not to drop the inner fillings onto her plate. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Five had reached across with the pizza cutter and was beginning to pick up a piece. He held it in his hands unsure whether to take a bite from it. She placed the remainder of her burger onto the plate.

  
“It’s not going to hurt you Five, try a small bite.” She said offering a smile to her brother.

  
Five didn’t reply but took the smallest bite out of the piece, it left barely a mark in the food. He began to chew slowly and his eyes lit up in delight, like it was the best thing he had ever tasted in his life. Which to be honest was probably true.

  
“It’s good.” He whispered more to himself than to anyone else. He took a few more bites chewing them so slowly as if his pizza was going to be taken away from any second.

  
“You can eat quicker Five.” Vanya suggested.

  
Five looked at her and then at the pizza before shaking his head. “But then it won’t last.”

  
The truth of his words settled over in Allison in a firm thud. The apocalypse, food would have been scarce to come by. No wonder Five wanted to preserve what he had.

  
He was still eating his pizza as the rest of the siblings finished theirs. Five had made it through two slices and was now on third, taking his small bites. They weren’t going too rush him and if he didn’t want to eat any more well they weren’t going to force them. Allison thought it might have been the first time either of his siblings had actually seen him eat something that wasn’t coffee.

  
He gulped down his last bite than put the slice back down onto the plate.

  
“I don’t think I can eat anymore.” He mumbled looking across at Allison.

  
She wished he would eat more, but she wasn’t going to force him.

  
“We can ask for take-out, I’m sure she won’t mind.” Allison suggested.

  
Five nodded and he looked a little happier that he didn’t have to eat the massive pizza that was in front of them. Allison began to clear the plates up and placed them in the middle for the woman to pick up when they heard shouting come from the other end of the restaurant. The drunken man was awake and was pointing a finger at Five from across the room.

  
=  
The shouting got louder as the man started to approach the table. Five stared at him scowling at him. What on earth did this man want? He looked at him. He was wearing a black suit with a checkered pin and was clutching a briefcase to his thigh, tightly like it was the only thing between life and death. Five noticed how all of his siblings seemed to tense up and looked at the man. He smiled down at Five, looking like a predator that wanted to eat him. Five only looked at him with another scowl. Who on earth did this man think he was?

“Why are the commission here?” Diego asked looking at the man with a grimace.

  
The commission? The place had he had worked at, was this someone who had worked with him? He stayed silent looking at the man. The man carried on grinning at him.

  
“I didn’t think the rumours were true. The great Number Five turned into a kid!” He rubbed his face as he began to laugh. “Man if the others could see you now,” His face froze for a second. “Well there aren’t any others, your little friends made things sure of that didn’t they?” He laughed again.

  
“Who are you?” Five asked. This man was crazy, but there were questions rising on his throat. What had happened between his siblings and the commission? He knew his siblings wouldn’t probably tell him but he needed to know and this crazy man had the right answer.

  
The man cocked his head to the side looking at Five and smiled again. “You’ve forgotten me? Fiveee, I was your partner for months. Surely you can’t forget my face,” He pouted looking down at the boy. Five stared at him, wishing he had the memories of his older self but no recognition showed up his memory. This man was a stranger and there was nothing there.

  
The smile wiped of the man’s face. “Well when they said you were a heartless bastard I thought that wasn’t true. Looks like they were.” He spat at Five.

  
It happened so quickly, there was a flash of silver and Diego had launched himself towards the man. His knife was pushed up against his throat and he pressed it into the skin. The man let out a laugh that bubbled through his mouth.

  
“He’s just a kid, don’t you dare.” Diego growled. He pressed the knife even closer and a thin line of blood began to seep out from the man’s neck.

  
“A kid? We all know you don’t believe that,” His words came out garbled like he was underwater. His blood dripped onto Diego’s knife, staining the silver red before it oozed onto the floor. “He’s killed thousands of people. He’s a monster. Why do you think he was the most dangerous assassin of all time?”

  
Five’s stomach twirled. He felt sick. He had killed people? Is that what the commission had been, killing people? Innocent people who had done nothing. He was a murderer. That knowledge settled within and he felt like he was going to be sick. He needed to leave. Five didn’t think about his powers or even his family. He pushed past Vanya stumbling onto the floor. He didn’t look back but heard his name being called from behind him, the man’s laughter echoing from behind him. He needed to leave, he was a monster, a killer. Was that how he had gotten home? By killing thousands of people? Why would he do something like that?

  
He managed to stumble out of the diner and landed onto his knees in the parking lot. He clutched at his shirt and vest, feeling his heart beat louder and louder. He felt the grit on the car park on his hands and tried to remember what Vanya had said about breathing. He tried not to think about anything only staring at the ground on the floor. He wanted to clear his hand, so he could think but all he could think of the fact that he was a murderer.

  
He and his siblings had killed people before sure but they had been simple missions. They had been bad guys but this was different. He had killed innocent people and he didn’t know who they were. He wondered if his older self recalled who they were, if he spent his time counting how many lives had been taken for the sake of him getting home. It almost made him wonder if that sacrifice had been worth it, if the apocalypse should have happened. He clutched at his head tighter and curled into a ball. He wanted to know who he had killed, but the thought scared him. To know that he would have been the last thing they had saw. His face staring down at them, knowing they were being murdered by a cold blooded killer.

  
Sobs racked through his frame and he began to rock on the floor. He didn’t want to be a murderer. That wasn’t him, but it was him! Nothing made sense again. As he rocked some more and tears appeared on his cheeks he felt a hold touch his shoulder. It was gentle, like a mother’s. He looked up to see Allison above him. She sat next to him but kept her hand on his shoulder. He wanted to take it out but her touch felt comforting which was something he would never tell her.

  
“Why would I kill people?” He asked, his voice so small.

  
“You were an assassin who preserved timelines, I think. I don’t know too much about it.” Allison admitted with a sigh.

  
“To get home, I killed people? Allison I’m a murder—I-I don’t deserve to live.” Five said finally saying the truth that was winding up through his whole body. He should leave, once Allison rumoured him back. He would find a way to repent his sins one way or another.  
Much to his surprise, Allison’s head snapped up and she took hold of him by both shoulders and stared at him in the eyes. He remembered the younger version of Allison being like this, always positive and determined in their missions. It made him miss the other version of his siblings. The ones he had grown up with but now they were different and so was he. They could never go back to being who they were.

  
“Five Hargreeves, you time travelled your way back to this family. You had to do it, or else you would never get back. Yes you killed people, but it was an necessary evil. You’re a hero. You helped us stop the apocalypse, you helped Vanya and because of you I met the most wonderful man I’ve ever known. So don’t you dare say you don’t deserve to live when you fought so much to stay alive.” Her grip tightened and it was like she wanted to shake him to think about what he had said. He wanted to agree with, of course he did but the feelings were there.

  
“But I still killed them-,” He said looking at her with a shake of his head.

  
“I know but Five all that matters now is you’re here. I know we should have told you but I wasn’t expecting to run into a commission agent I thought they were all dead.” Allison muttered more to himself than Five.

  
“He mentioned that there was a fight, what happened?” Five asked.

  
Allison then took a moment to briefly explain what exactly had happened on that night. Five was sure she was leaving some details out but from what he understood, the agents had been out to kill him. He wanted to ask her for more but she was currently staring at the diner with a frown.

  
“We need to get back inside, the woman came out and saw Diego threatening the man. I left because we were afraid you were going to leave again.” Allison said standing up and dusting her pants.

  
Five stood up with her. He wasn’t going to leave, he was home and no matter what had happened he wouldn’t leave. He had made that promise to himself.

  
“That man won’t hurt Diego will he?” Five said as they began to walk back to the diner.

  
“No I think Diego might hurt him, his neck was bleeding quite badly. So come on kiddo.” Allison patted his back.

  
Five wiped his tears and as they entered back into the diner. He looked up to see his pizza toppled on the floor. The other siblings watching as Diego and the strange man were fighting, the sound of knives and thuds coming from the two men. Five eyes widened and then in the distance, loud and thunderous police sirens began to fill the air.


	7. The Regret Of An Old Man

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was supposed to be up two weeks ago but I've been busy and had a bad injury so have been focusing on healing my leg, as it's taken me two weeks to walk properly again.  
> I also love Vanya and Five's sibling dynamic, we need more scenes with them in season three. I can't believe I stayed up til half one writing this so there may be a lot of typos if I miss them. I'm hoping to update this on the 27th December and that will be the last update for this year. 
> 
> If you want to chat or ask me anything, can you find me on tumblr: guardianofdust

**7**

**The Regret Of An Old Man**

The diner’s doors burst open as three police officers barged in, their guns raised high in the air.

“Drop your weapons!” The first said pointing his gun at Diego.

Five watched as Diego’s eyes flicked across to the police officer, the man’s shoulders dropped and he placed his knife on the table. The cop padded towards his brother and began to handcuff him. Diego looked entirely unbothered as if he had been in this situation many times before.

The other cop walked up to the man that had called himself Five’s partner. He looked at the cop with a smile.

  
“You’re arresting me? Why officer, I’ve hardly done anything. In fact it was this giant dwarf who attacked me first.” He pointed at Diego with black gleaming eyes.

  
“Tell that to the lady who called us.” He muttered and grabbed the man’s arms handcuffing them behind his back.

  
Again the strange man laughed, his cackle echoing through the entire diner. It went through Five, his bones creaking with it. It caused a deep ache as if he had heard the laugh many times before. He was the kind of man that his Father had warned Five and his siblings about. Reginald Hargreeves had been no saint of course but he had least tried to teach his ‘children’ about who was bad and good, so they could make sense of their missions of who to save and who to kill.

  
The man looked back at Five and smiled. “If you’re going to arrest me then, you should arrest the kid over there he’s murdered dozens of people, without even a care.”

  
Five felt his whole body going rigid. He was a killer, had been? Was? He let out a shaky breath trying not to look at the man. He didn’t want to, he couldn’t. Did Five even want his memories back now after what he had done? Would he hear the people he had killed screaming his name, or sobbing as they watched him walk away. As if his brain wanted to imagine the screaming, he had to cover his ears and try to hide his sob.

  
“Son it’s alright, we know you haven’t done anything.” The cop said with a nod.

  
Five couldn’t look at him, so he turned his back still covering his ears. The whole room felt loud, the sounds echoing in his eardrums. He saw Vanya walking through bits of broken plate. She saw him looking distraught and made her way over to him, picking up her pace.

  
“Five, what’s the matter?” She asked placing a small hand on his shoulder.

  
“It’s too loud, everything’s screaming.” Five muttered. This was all becoming too much, how did his older self even handle it? He couldn’t even handle two days. He wanted silence, the silence that had come from being in the academy and at a familiar place, where strange men he was supposed to know didn’t scream at you and tell you what your older self had done. He was collapsing, falling. The whole diner felt like it was echoing and voices murmured around him. He could feel Vanya’s hand on his shoulder, squeezing it. There was no good trying to reassure him, he had no idea where he was.

  
Five wasn’t sure how much time had passed when he seemed to come to his senses and one of the officer waved a hand in front of him. The cop turned to Vanya.

  
“Is the kid alright?” He asked.

  
“I think he’s a little shaken up that’s all.” Vanya said.

  
“You his mom? You can be here while he gives a statement.” The cop said pulling out a notepad and flicking the page over with a lick of his finger. He clicked the tap of his ballpoint pen and began to scribble down. The sound echoed around in Five’s ears, everything still felt so loud.

  
“No, I’m his sister,” She squeezed his shoulder a little tighter and his head tilted towards her.

“Do you want me to stay with you?” She asked, looking like a mirror image of the sister he remembered so long ago as she had watched him run out of the door. What would have happened if he had stayed, if he had never left and grew up along with them? He wondered if he would have been happier, happier than how he felt right now because he was craving to run out of the door. He knew that they were only the wishes of a boy and that he couldn’t get that back, even if he could they wouldn’t be the same. Five was someone who had seen the end of the world, there was already so much dividing him and their younger selves that it hurt him but there was nothing he could do.

  
“Yes.” He managed to stay, his voice sounding hoarse and foreign to his ears.

  
Vanya squeezed his shoulder once more and Five’s eyes looked over to the cop who still writing, quick and methodical.

“Okay son let’s start from the top, what happened here tonight?” The cop asked, his eyes meeting Five’s.

  
Five swallowed, his adam’s apple bobbing in time with the music that was still echoing throughout the diner.

  
“I was having food when he started yelling at us,” Five began and then explained what had only happened an hour ago. Five made sure to leave it vague, only answering the cop’s questions with short brief answers. The questioning came to an end twenty minutes later when the cop decided to stop writing.

  
The cop tucked the notebook away and looked at Five with a strained smile.

  
“From what it looks like that man caused all this, but I’m going to have to interview everyone else,” The cop turned back to Vanya. “How many of there are you?”

  
“Six.” Vanya answered.

  
 _Seven_. Thought Five, the urge to see Ben came back even stronger but he knew he couldn't. 

  
“You all family or something?” The cop asked with a frown. “Or is he someone’s kid?” The cop got up from his chair and looked over to the rest of the siblings who were stood talking to the cop. The man who had called himself Five’s partner had placed into one of the police cars, Five assumed Diego was in one of them as well because he was nowhere to be seen.

  
“We’re all brothers and sisters.” Vanya muttered sounding uncomfortable as she too looked at the rest of her siblings.

  
The cop looked back at Five. “Bit of an age gap.”

  
Five frowned. Yes there was and that was another thing he hadn’t really thought about much until now. The fact that he was younger than his siblings. He was trying not to think of his older self, he had decided in that moment that he was thirteen. He didn’t have the experience of his older self and he was going to keep that way. Although if his ‘partner’ was anything to go by, was his older self like the man? Half crazy by killing people? He didn’t want to think about it.

  
“I’ll go last if that’s okay, going to keep him company.” Vanya said with a smile completely ignoring the cop’s comment.

  
With that the cop walked away with an awkward nod and went to the other siblings. Five felt like he should take a massive sigh of relief but let out a shaky breath, the events of the day were finally settling on to him and he was tired. He wanted to sleep but when he slept memories of the apocalypse came to him. He couldn’t win no matter what he did.

  
He heard the scrape of a chair and looked up to see Vanya sitting next to him.

  
“What a day huh?” She said with a grimace.

  
“Yeah,” Five sighed and rested his cheek on his hand. He looked down at his academy uniform that was getting wrinkled. He played with the sleeve of his blazer and wondered if his older self owned any other clothes. Would they feel the same as when he put them on? He shook his head, it didn’t matter. Come tomorrow he wouldn’t be thirteen any more. Then it would be up to his older self.

  
“This is normal for us. We have to make a scene everywhere we go.” Vanya muttered.

  
Five wondered what she meant but didn’t ask. His other self might have not even been there for that. There was a 17 year history that he would never be able to know unless his siblings told him everything and that wasn’t something that was going to just magically happen.

  
“It is, even back when Dad when was alive.” Five replied to her, thinking about when he had ran out of their Family dinner so long ago.

  
“I wish you had never left you know Five.” Vanya said looking at him with sorrowful eyes. Five could see the loneliness that had been built up over the years, an echo of the best friend he had left behind.

“I know, I’m sorry.” He whispered.

  
He felt her move the chair closer to him. Without thinking he laid his head on her shoulder. He felt her freeze for a second before she relaxed. He breathed in and let his eyes close, feeling his chest rise and fall. Five let himself drift off into the darkness.  
=

  
Morning came for Allison as sunlight streamed through her window. She squinted as he eyes adjusted to the light. The previous day’s events then hit her all at once. The cop had come to ask them for their statements, it turned out that Diego would spend the night at the police station and they would decide what to do with him in the morning. Nobody was really happy with the outcome, not even Five. The boy had constantly asked if his brother would be okay much to Allison’s distress. It seemed he had only stopped when they had arrived back at their home. Five had disappeared upstairs the minute that they had come back, not saying a word.

  
Each of the siblings had gone their separate ways trying to process everything that happened over the morning and afternoon. Allison had decided it was a perfect moment to head to her bedroom, collapse and stare at the bedroom mirror. She must have fallen asleep at some point as she was still wearing yesterday’s clothes that had become rumpled in her sleep.

  
Getting up, she walked over to her wardrobe where she saw a pair of jeans and a red turtleneck sitting proudly on their hangers. They were the last of her clean clothes that she had brought with her when she had only thought the trip to her Father’s funeral would only last a couple of days. How strange that it had been two years since then for her. She got them up and laid them out on her bed. She left her bed unmade and padded to one of the many bathrooms where she proceeded to take off her rumpled clothes and began to run herself a bath.  
About forty minutes later, Allison was dressed and was staring at the posters that she had put up as a teenager. She could remember idolizing the young actors that she saw in the magazines. Mom had got them for her, when the AI had found one of them buried underneath her pillow. If Allison’s Dad had caught her reading the magazines she knew it would have been extra training but Mom had called up and started a subscription behind Reginald Hargreeves's back. Allison wondered if that had been a sign of her Mom gaining her own intelligence and not her father’s programming. She missed her Mom sometimes, Pogo too but there was no bringing them back. They had to live with the fact that they were both gone for good, even Diego.

  
She stood up from her chair and made her way to the door. The house was silent, it didn’t sound like anybody was awake yet. As she opened her door, she was a pair of feet resting on the wooden floorboards. She looked down to see the brazen blue of his academy pajamas. It was Five. He was huddled into himself cradling his legs and looking straight forward.

  
“Five?” Allison asked.

  
He looked startled when she said his name. He looked at where he was and then pulled at the air and blinked. Allison frowned as she stared at the space where he had been, why on earth had he been outside her room? She knew that she would have to and see him. Allison began to head towards his room and knocked on.

  
“Go away.” She heard Five say although it was muffled.

  
Allison sighed and entered his room anyway. She had always thought Five’s room had been lonely ever since he had left. Cobwebs had often covered his toys that he he left behind, no one the siblings had entered much except for Vanya when they were younger. She had always left peanut butter and marshmallow sandwiches on a plate in his room.

  
She saw the covers pulled over a figure on the bed. She stayed where she was for a moment before deciding to walk towards him. Part of Allison wanted to take the covers off him but she knew that he would ignore her with her experience with Claire. It was a safety net for him and so she stayed where she was watching him.

  
“Allison why are you in my room?” Five sniffed, he sounded like he had been crying.

“I wanted to ask you why you were outside my room.” Allison sound softly, she didn’t want to sound like she was judging her younger brother.

  
“I must have blinked in my sleep.” Five replied shifting the covers a little so she could see the top of his hair. It was greasy.

  
Allison didn’t quite believe him.

  
“That might not be the only reason?” She prompted.

  
Five didn’t answer, only stayed under the covers.

  
“Well if you’re not going to answer me, I’ll stay here until you do.” She sat herself down on his chair and began to study the equations that were written all over the walls. She couldn’t make sense of them at all but pretended to be interested in them so that she could keep herself busy.

  
A couple of minutes passed and she could feel herself being watched. She turned her head slightly to see Five’s eyes poking out from the cover and he gave a long yawn.

  
“You’re not leaving are you?” He muttered.

  
“No.” Allison said with a smile and turned to face him.

  
Five pulled the covers off to reveal his bed hair and tired eyes. He looked adorable. It felt wrong to think that, Five and adorable didn’t belong in the same sentence. Only goblin, gremlin or murderous felt right.

  
“Fine…I had a nightmare,” Five admitted. “I wanted to get out of my room and thought the best place to go would be your room.”

  
“What happened in the nightmare?” Allison asked, feeling protective over her younger brother. If there was any way she could help.

  
“It doesn’t matter. It won’t matter.” Five said sighing and sitting on the edge of the bed.

  
“It does Five, you can’t keep ignoring it.” Allison said, knowing all too well that feelings couldn’t be pushed aside. They rose back up either in the form of anger or nightmares. They could control you if you didn’t know how to control them.

  
“It won’t matter,” Five repeated and he brought his knees back up to his chest. He looked so small and frightened that Allison wanted to hug him. “The other me can deal with it. I- I want to be rumoured back.”

  
“Now?” Allison asked with a frown. Now? She would have thought he wanted everybody to be there, including Diego.

  
“Yes it’s who I’m supposed to be isn’t it? I’m not really thirteen, I shouldn’t be here.” Five said although he didn’t look like he believed those words. She could see tears in his eyes.

  
Allison had never really thought Five Hargreeves could cry until a couple of days ago, maybe it was because he was younger than he normally was and could access his emotions easier although he was still a little bit of an asshole, however that was just his personality. There was no changing that.

  
“Five, I don’t have to do that if you don’t want me to. I admit I shouldn’t have done it in the first place but I’m giving you the choice.”

  
“Allison, I can’t do this. I don’t know what will happen if I learn more about what I did. At least older me knows how to deal with it.” He said looking straight at her. He wiped the tears away from his eyes.

  
Allison took a deep breath. It was what he wanted, she had to do it. To fix her mistake.

“What about if it doesn’t work? I can’t take rumours back Five, you must remember that.” Allison said with a panicked expression.

  
Five shook his head.

  
“It has to work, it’s a different rumour. You’re making me my true age again.”

  
She was, she had tried to reserve her rumours in the past when she had felt guilty. She had quickly learned that there were consequences.

  
“Okay then, here we go,” She said it as a warning, hoping that it would give time for Five to prepare himself for what was to come. “I heard a rumour that you were fifty eight.”

  
She watched as Five’s eyes turned white and waited when they would become their normal hue of green again. However they stayed white and a panic began to build in Allison’s chest.


	8. Myself and I

8

Myself and I

Five was falling, the blackness surrounding him, engulfing his small frame as the blackness dragged him deep down. There were images in the blackness, fragments of colour that resembled picasso paintings. He tried to reach out and touch them. They rippled at his touch, colours flipping through his fingers. Sound came from them, voices, screams and the rare laughter of children.

He tried to reach in, to see where that sound was coming, perhaps it was some future memory. He could feel pictures coming to his mind and then he felt a pull like someone was dragging him by his legs, it was heavy. Five began to fall again. 

He landed on something hard and the darkness disappeared into a cloud, floating away lightly. Five looked up and began to panic when he saw the telltale rubble of the apocalypse, except there was something different about the library he had called home. The structure was relatively the same but the stone looked older cracking in various places where weeds had decided to grow. There were more books littered in the ground where wine and beer bottles rested, looking like desolate flowers in the wasteland.

Five picked himself up and saw Delores sat in the corner. She looked happy with a brown sweater that brought out her pale complexion. 

As he gazed at everything, he heard some rubble fall and a pair of footsteps from behind him. Five turned around to see an old man gazing at him.

“Who are you?” Five asked but he knew the answer as soon as the question left his lips.

“I’m you.” The old man answered, his voice cracked and weathered by time. 

Five took a step back as he fully took in the old man. He was relatively small, only a couple of inches taller than Five. He wore a plain black suit complete with a wide brimmed hat resting on his head. Five saw a hint of grey hair, and the man’s face had a manicured mustache. He would have never thought that this small old man could be him. He was sure that he would have been taller. However Five had decided that must have been due to malnourishment not genetics. 

His older self came forward, he noticed the man was flickering, like when his powers fizzled out except it happened every time his older self took a step. 

“Where am I? The apocalypse?”  
Five knew that was wrong.

“Your subconscious, more or less.” HIs older self answered and sat on one of the stones, his hands folded in his lap. 

“Allison’s rumour, didn’t it work? Aren’t you supposed to be in control?” Five’s questions were mounting and his older self scoffed.

“Well, I would like to be but the problem is that you are in the way.” Five watched as his older self studied him like the younger Five was something to kill. Five hated it. 

“What do you mean?” Five said, his voice broke and he cringed.

“You shouldn’t exist.” His older self said, his voice cold and calculating.

Was this who he had become? This old man, who was a killer?

“I’m you. That doesn’t make any sense.” Five protested.

His older self scoffed again and rolled his eyes.

“Think.”

“Allison’s rumour?” Five asked, his eyes widening as he thought about it.

“You aren’t supposed to exist.” His older self began to move towards him, his eyes void of any emotion.

“It’s my body. You’re the older version of me.” Five said, his voice coming out quiet and echoing.

“Technically it’s mine as I accidentally de-aged myself when time travelling to 2019. A mistake I shouldn’t have made.”

His older self took another step and Five felt so small despite the small height difference between them.

“You died in the apocalypse, you are an enigma brought to life by Allison’s rumour. Allison's powers have always been unique; the fact that she created two of me in one body. I would find this fascinating if it didn’t involve me.”

Five hated how his older self sounded like his Father. He knew he should have listened to Reginald Hargreeves before time travelling but Five Hargreeves had always been stubborn, it didn't look like that had changed with his older self. 

“Then why am I here?” Five repeated. “Didn’t Allison’s rumour work?”

“Yes and no. The first time it did and I disappeared. It wasn’t until you had those stupid breakdowns and my old partner showed up before I reappeared, only to find out that my younger self was in control. I want my body back.” His older self was glaring at him now, his eyes narrowed.

Five ignored his demand. 

“So Allison’s new rumour didn’t work?” The younger Five asked, his adam’s apple bobbing. He felt threatened. 

“She gave me the means to come back, although faintly. However the two of us can’t exist in the same body, it’s not possible. I am fading, I need my body back. You need to leave.” His older self’s voice dropped lower, almost into a scowl.

Five shook his head. The more he talked to his older self, the more scared of knowing that this was what he had become as an adult. He didn’t want to become him. It was like a lightbulb went off his head as he realised, he didn’t have to become him. He had a chance to do everything over again.

“No.” Five said, his whole body shaking.

“No?” His older self laughed. “You don’t get a choice in this, it’s my body.”

“I said no. I’m not becoming you.” Five protested, hating how he sounded like a child arguing with his Father.

His older self scowled and walked over to him. He grabbed Five shoulder’s and hoisted him off the ground.

“Let me go!” Five screamed flailing around in his iron like grip, his legs hitting the older man’s chest. His older self didn’t let him go, his grip only getting tighter. 

Five found himself looking into his older self eyes, the crow’s feet dancing as his older self glared at him.

“Now listen to me. You died in the apocalypse. I didn’t suffer forty five years in the apocalypse to come back home to my family and then be cast away into the ether. I have fought so hard and you’re not taking that away from me.” 

Looking into his older self’s eyes, Five almost felt sorry for the old man. He looked tired and worn. However he knew that this man had killed and killed. He couldn’t forget that.

“You killed people, why not let me live? I’m a second chance.” Five said, hoping that he might convince his older self. 

“I killed people to survive, you know nothing of that. Now enough, leave or else I will make you.” His older self's tone stayed the same, but there was a hidden warning.

Five shook his head again. 

“No, I’m staying and you can’t make me leave!” He shouted.

“Then you leave me no choice.” The old man growled.

Five didn’t know what to expect to happen next but his older self dropped him and he was falling, falling until he opened his eyes to see Allison shouting at him. 

His whole body was being shaken by her. He blinked at and saw how she gasped.

“Five, are you okay?” She asked panicking, checking him over like a doting Mother. “Your eyes were white-I didn’t know what to do- I thought,”

“I’m fine, Allison.” He said with a strained smile.

She pulled a face before forcing a smile.

“So are you fifty eight again?” Five noticed how her hand was hovering over his shoulder.

“No, I’m thirteen still.” Five admitted.

Her hand patted his shoulder and she pulled away, a frown creasing her features.

“The rumour didn’t work then? Do you want to stay thirteen?” She looked like she was about to panic.

Five shook his head, his hair ruffling. 

“No, it’s complicated. My older self is in here,” He pointed to his brain. “Your rumour created me, or that’s what he said. I didn’t really understand myself.”

Allison frowned again.

“It created your thirteen year old self subconscious? I’m guessing it pulled you from a time in the apocalypse?” Allison looked like she understood more than he did, which was saying a lot because Five often credited himself as being the genius in the family, even now at only thirteen. 

“I think so,” Five thought about it for a second. It was best not to tell Allison about what had really happened. That was his problem to deal with and nobody else’s. He wasn’t sure what could happen with his older self somewhere in his mind but that would be something he would have to cope with.

“So what happened exactly?” Allison asked looking at him.

“We talked, and he said he wanted to move on. He’s letting me have a second chance.” Five forced a smile onto his face. At the back of his mind, he swore he heard his older self growl and a flash of something appeared before his eyes. There was a woman wearing a black dress, smiling at him. He shook the image away but he couldn't help but wonder, who on earth had that woman been? 

“You’re staying thirteen then?” Allison’s voice was hesitant. “Is this what you want?”

Five nodded. 

“It is. I don’t remember killing people, I don’t have forty years of being stuck in the apocalypse so I can start over, the best I can.” Five replied, feeling hopeful.

Another flash of the woman appeared above his eyes. He was sure he knew her, he had seen her before. Five shook his head. No, he didn’t want to find out her name. He didn’t want his past, he wanted a future. 

“Well then we have to sort so much out, if you’re staying thirteen. First might be actually getting you some clothes.” Allison glanced at his uniform hanging from his wardrobe door.

Five frowned, he had never really been big on his clothes. Their uniforms had always been practical and efficient, he didn’t understand why he would need anything else. 

“Why can’t I keep wearing it? It’s fine.” He protested.

Allison laughed. “Five, Dad’s dead. You don’t need to wear that old thing anymore. How about tomorrow we go shopping?”

Five hated the idea of it. He could imagine her dragging him all over the place, throwing clothes at him. He could even imagine Klaus amongst the chaos trying to dress him in things he would hate. He wasn’t sure of it. However looking at Allison’s beaming smile made him decide.

“Yes, as long as we aren’t gone for long.” Five said, hiding his pain underneath a grimace. He was going to hate tomorrow. He had to remind himself that he wouldn’t be gone for long, and this was the first step to starting his life again. He needed to push himself.

“Of course. It will be only two hours,” She ruffled his hair and Five felt his heart flutter. It was nice, the human touch was nice. He did feel a part of his mind cringe at the touch.

“I need to sort some court things out and make some phone calls, will you be okay now?” Allison asked. “I can stay if you want.”

Five shook his head.

“Allison, I’m fine. Go and sort out your things.” 

Allison nodded and then left his room. 

Five sighed and leaned back onto his bed staring up at the ceiling. He was tired, and now he would have to fight his older self. It was such a change from this morning when he was sure his older self belonged here. Now having met his older self, he wanted the chance to live as he should have done. The grass isn't greener on the other side.

His eyes felt heavy, he was tired again but he fought against his body. He would win against the nightmares and his older self.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A bit of a shorter chapter, I wasn't sure what I wanted with this chapter but this is the last update of the year. Happy new year, let's hope 2021 might be better than the shitstain this year was. I will be editing all of this at some point, it's just difficult finding the time tbh. 
> 
> tumblr: guardianofdust


	9. The Court Of Clothes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I can't believe I've been working on this over a month. Enjoy as always. Come and chat umbrella academy with me I don't bite.
> 
> tumblr: https://www.tumblr.com/blog/guardianofdust

9

The Court Of Clothes

The world was hot, an unbearable hot that made his clothes stick to his skin and his throat dry. His whole body felt heavy from his lack of sleep. There was nothing more than what he wanted to do but fall asleep in the sun but he had to keep moving, he needed to find some more food or any other items.

It had only been two years since Five had gotten himself stuck in the apocalypse and the world had changed, and stayed the same. He had expected some part of nature to start growing back, tufts of grass between the rocks or even a flower now and again but the world had remained a desolate wasteland. The buildings had begun to crumble, bits of them falling to the ground and shattering into dust clouds. Dust clouds that would come blooming into Five’s nostrils and tear through his throat.

He turned his head at the sound of crumbling concrete and dread passed through him.

He was currently on the outskirts of the city on an expedition with Delores hoping that they might find more food or even another survivor. He wasn’t betting on that last bit. He had come to the conclusion six months into the apocalypse that no-one had survived but a small part of him wanted there to be, the small part that had been squashed by the hellhole.

On the outskirts, there had once been suburban homes with perfectly cut lawns and cookie cutter driveways. Now there were nothing but empty husks with shattered windows.

The building that was beginning to crumble was an old office building that still had the various remains of tattered posters on. It had fallen sideways, half of it splitting in the middle arching upwards towards the sky. Five was walking along the road, about twenty paces in front of it, his red wagon trailing behind him. As he looked at the building he saw a large chunk of the building falling from the top of the arch, it looked to be part of the foundation. It fell and fell, shattering into the tarmac.

The ground shook as dust arose and began to form into a large cloud. It felt like Five was in a movie, he had seen a couple when he had found an old vcr and tv from the dumpster. He had taken it back to the academy with him. Ben and Vanya had found him asking where on earth he had found it. He remembered telling them that was his secret and they would never know. That night the three of them had ended up watching a movie that had a lot of large explosions and gunfire. It had reminded Ben and Five too much of their missions. They never got the opportunity to watch it again because their Father had found it in the morning. Five had taken the punishment. He still made him sick thinking about it.

As the dust cloud formed, it began to come straight towards Five. At first he tried to spacial jump but his powers flickered. They were useless. He began to run, his legs screaming in protest. He was tired but the adrenaline he felt pulsating through his body gave him the energy to push himself as he began to sprint.

He knew it might have been better to leave the wagon behind and carry Delores. However the wagon had been useful to carry her with him so he wasn’t alone and she didn’t have to wait for him.

 _Five, we’re not going to make it!_ Delores shouted, her voice echoing in panic.

Five didn’t reply, instead focusing all his energy into running. However his running had been in error because the dust cloud had caught up with him.

 _Put yourself into a ball._ Delores told him. She sounded so confident and sure of herself.

Five nodded and buried into himself, covering his eyes and nose with his tattered scarf. It did little to protect him as the dust ravaged through his eyes and lungs. He coughed and coughed but he couldn’t breathe. His lungs were heavy and his eyes stung. He tried to go into a tighter ball and focused on his siblings.

He conjured up their images, Vanya playing the violin and being so happy when he complimented her. Ben sat in an armchair, reading his book silently in the library. Klaus laughing to himself as he tried on Allison’s skirt. Allison practicing her faces in the mirror. Diego throwing knives at a target on the wall. No nonsense Luther beaming proudly at their Father.

They were quickly replaced by their corpses, ashy faces that had begun to rot when he had found them. He wished he could cry but Five had learned that he needed to preserve energy so had started to push his emotions deep down where he couldn’t find them.

The dust storm raged around and a part of him wondered if this was it. He was going to die at fifteen and no-one would ever know. At least he would be able to be with his siblings. Five huddled into himself, sending a silent prayer to his siblings while the dust cloud raged.

=

Five awoke with a start, his heart was hammering and lungs were aching. His chest and arms hurt too. He took a deep breath as he lay back into his pillow. What on earth had he dreamed about the apocalypse?

 _A memory_. His older self’s voice echoed in his head, sounding distant.

A memory of his old self. Five tried to shake his head. However this mental battle was going to take place, he wanted to win. He had to win for a future that his older self had never had.

He looked to his window where the sun was streaming through the window. He wasn’t even sure what time it was. When Allison had left, with nothing to do Five had fallen asleep again.  
Although his whole body ached, he knew that he needed to get up. He was still in pajamas but he didn’t care as he blinked into the kitchen. He found Diego sat at the table, munching through a pile of six fried eggs.

“Diego,” he said as he took a step forward but his legs gave way. They were still aching.

Five almost fell to the floor until he felt someone wrap their arms around him and pull him up to his feet.

“Careful Fivey!” Klaus said.

Diego looked up, grunted and went back to his meal.

“What happened? Did the police let you go?” Five asked, walking a few paces with Klaus leaning on him. Despite how skinny the older man looked he was quite heavy.

Diego didn’t reply at first. Instead he lifted his plate to his lips and scoffed the remainder of the eggs down his gullet. He slapped the plate down and gave out a satisfactory burp.

“As much as I love you Diego that’s the grossest thing I’ve ever seen you do and that’s coming from a guy who snorted a whole line over a random-,” Klaus’s eyes widened and he covered Five’s ears. “Little Five, this is for grown up ears.”

Five pushed Klaus’s hands away from his ears and stepped away from his brother.

“I’m old enough to know what you’re talking about and I don’t think anyone wants to hear it.” Five scoffed.

Klaus shrugged.

Five turned back to Diego, hoping that he was going to answer his question.

“Beaman was able to convince the woman at the diner not to press charges. Claimed I wasn’t the one who started the fight. They still have your friend locked up there.” He raised his eyebrows at Five.

 _Old partner,_ the words floated through Five’s head. He really wanted to say but he didn’t. Those words didn’t belong to him. Instead he tried to focus on the feeling of relief knowing that Diego was safe.

“You’re not going to leave again are you? Allison said you kept leaving.” Five asked, shuffling his bare feet. He wanted his family to stay put where he knew where they were. If Diego left again, who knows what could happen to him.

Diego tilted his head up and gazed at Five with a gruntled expression. He looked like he wanted to tell Five something as he bit the corner of his mouth, his hands trailing over his knives strapped to his chest.

“You’re still a kid aren’t you?”

“Yes.” Five hesitated, unsure of where this was going.

“Let’s just say that a lot of shit went down when we time travelled to the sixties and I haven’t really been myself since and that’s why I have been leaving the house.” Diego shrugged.

“Allison told me about some things that happened but I have a feeling that she left some of it out.” Five said, hoping that his brother might tell him some more of the truth. He wanted to find out through his siblings instead of through his memories. The more he saw of his older self’s memories, the more that he would become him.

“There was a girl, her name was Lila. She had a lot of dirt with you,” Diego said frowning, his hand wavered on his belt.

“Why?” Five asked, feeling a pit in his stomach.

“You killed her parents. She had a lot of problems with you. She also happened to be my ex-girlfriend.” Diego said, not looking at Five.

It felt like several bombs had been thrown at Five at once, hitting him one after the other. Would his older self expected that something like that would come to bite him?

“I’m sorry.” Five said, apologising. He wanted to cry but he was too tired.

 _Pathetic_. His older self insinsited through his mind. Five tried to ignore him.

Five felt a tap on his nose and Diego smiling down at him. It looked like a pained smile but Diego had never really smiled genuinely in the first place when he was younger. The whole time Five had ever seen it had been when he had been talking to Mom. Once, Five had caught them talking when he was sneaking around the academy at eleven practicing his spacial jumps.

“Don’t be so hard on yourself. It’s my problem to deal with.” Diego looked at him with a strained smile again.

Five had been on the end of that smile more than once. He remembered one of the last missions, their Father had sent them on before he had disappeared. Diego had kept smiling at all his siblings like that. It had been a dangerous mission, one that involved a criminal gang’s hideout. They would have died if it hadn’t been for Diego throwing his knives at the leader. None of them had thanked him, Luther had blamed him for taking his shot. They had gone home tired and beaten. Five supposed the missions over the years had gotten worse. He had never really gotten the details that he wanted to get from Vanya’s book.

“But I feel like I should apologize,” Five started.

Diego shook his head.

“You can be an asshole, even as a kid but you’re family. We do bad things to each other. I’m sure the older you would have understood.” Diego nodded.

Five expected his older self to say something but there was only silence. It was like he had blocked him away.

“Maybe.” Five shrugged.

“Sorry to interrupt your brotherly bonding you two but it is almost noon. Little Five has had no breakfast. I think it’s time he had some.” Klaus interrupted standing in front of Diego. He was now in Five’s line of sight.

“I don’t need to be babied.” Five muttered glaring at Klaus.

Klaus smiled. “Eggs?”

“Fine.” Five said with an eye roll.

=

“Patrick for the last time, I would have to get a plane ticket tomorrow night to be there for that date.” Allison growled down the phone.

“Not my problem.” Patrick replied, his voice sounding smug.

"And what is that supposed to mean?” Allison snapped, feeling the rage burning through her.

“It means that you need to be here if you ever want to see her again.” Patrick spat.

Allison wanted to cry, she thought that she had more time. That she wouldn’t have to deal with all of this building up now. She had no choice, if she wanted to see her daughter again then she had to go to court. She was not going to get her visitation rights taken away from her. She had worked too hard to be treated like this.

She quietly subdued her anger and clenched onto the phone wire.

“I’ll be there.” She said in a whisper.

Patrick said nothing and slammed the phone down. Allison placed the receiver down gently, staring at it. All these years of waiting and it had come to this. She was going to fight for it, and nothing was going to stop her.  
She heard voices come from the kitchen, they were mumbled but it sounded like Klaus and Diego. A younger voice joined, sounding as sarcastic as he normally did. Five was awake. She had already seen Diego walking in the morning. They had exchanged a few words before he had disappeared into the kitchen.

As Allison entered the kitchen, she found Klaus hovering over Five watching him as he chewed on a couple eggs slowly and methodically. Five looked uncomfortable as he cut another piece of egg off and stabbed his fork into it. Diego was playing with one of his knives looking at the two of them occasionally.

“They taste burnt.” Five muttered as he took another mouthful.

“Five, they are cooked to perfection. How dare you insult my cooking?” Klaus pretended to cry. His eyes then drifted over to one of the chairs that was pulled slightly aside. “Shut up Ben, your opinion is invalid.”

Allison’s heart hurt when she heard Five say, “Ben are you here?” As he swallowed his mouthful of egg.

“He’s here.” Klaus answered, his gaze softening.

Five took another mouthful and then noticed that Allison was in the kitchen. He didn’t say anything but his pause alerted her two brothers in the room.

“Allison are you here to join the breakfast party?” Klaus said, patting one of the chairs next to him.

“Does this breakfast party involve burnt eggs?” She said looking at the last one on Five’s plate. The white was burnt around the edge and the yolk looked like a child had drawn with a crayon all over it, the lines out of place.

“They aren’t burnt.” Klaus said, defending himself.

“They are.” All three siblings said unison staring at Klaus.

Klaus rolled his eyes. “It hasn’t stopped Five from eating it.”

“I only ate them because you wouldn’t shut up otherwise.” Five defended, crossing his arms.

“Excuses! You’re a growing boy Five, you need to eat!” Klaus pushed the plate even further towards him.

Five started at the plate. “Don’t coddle me.”

Klaus flicked his wrist so that his yes tattoo was on full display. “You’re the baby of the family now we can coddle all you want.”

“Allison has a daughter, coddle her instead.” Five said as began to cut around the burnt parts of his egg.

Allison tried her best to keep herself calm. She didn’t even know if she would be able to see her daughter again if she didn’t win the court case that would begin in a couple of days. Her next job would be to see if she could secure airplane tickets so last minute or it was going to be a long drive to LA. Maybe it would be better to drive anyway, she could think of what on earth she was going to say in defense. That was she stranded in the sixties for two years and she had almost died a couple of weeks ago? Yeah that story was going to hold up well in court. In fact the only person that might believe her would be Claire.

“Allison what’s wrong?” Klaus asked, pulling Allison’s out of her thoughts.

“Nothing.” Allison said, faking a smile. She looked again at Five and the academy pajamas that he was wearing. If she was going to distract herself from the ongoing court case, then she wanted to get some new clothes for Five. Maybe today was the day that they would drag him shopping, although was he really going to enjoy that?

“Five, do you want to get some new clothes today?” She asked him as he placed his knife and fork down.

Five froze looking like a deer in highlights. “Today?” He asked, his right eyebrow rising slightly.

“It’s time to get you out of that uniform, you don’t have to wear it.” Allison said, crossing her arms.

Klaus cheered as he picked Five’s plate up and took it to the sink. He turned to face them both.

“Five you’ve got no choice! I’m going to get changed and then I’m coming as well.”

Allison laughed, while Five sunk deeper into his seat.

“Fine.” He muttered.

=

Around an hour later, Allison was waiting for Klaus. Five had dressed himself in the academy uniform once again, but this would be the last time he would be wearing it properly. At least that’s what Allison hoped. Klaus came down the stairs wearing something that would be considered very casual for Klaus.

He had decided to put his leather pants on, as well as an old t-shirt. It looked a little wrinkled, but that was unnoticeable as he had also decided to throw on a blank trench coat.

“Whose funeral are you going to?” Five muttered. Allison watched as he looked Klaus up and down.

Klaus smiled and did a twirl. He cupped Five’s chin with his left hand.

“Your uniform’s.” Klaus said as he took his fingers away from Five’s chin.

Five looked at Allison.

“Do we really have to bring him?”

She smiled at him.

“Even if I said no, Klaus would find a way. Now come on.” She grabbed Five’s hand. He looked up at her with a blink of surprise.

She stared at what she had done too. It had been something so instinctive, like when she used to hold Claire’s hand when she was smaller. Allison moved her hand away with a sheepish grin.

“Sorry, old habits. I used to do it with Claire.”

Five gave her a sorrowful nod.

They decided to get a taxi to one of the closest malls in the Academy. It wasn’t particularly busy with it being a week day but she looked at Five and how he was gazing at the car park, his face a solemn mask. The three of them got out together after she had given the taxi driver his money.

“Where should we go first?” Klaus asked but the both of them caught Five’s expression.

He was staring, his eyes unfocusing. His hand was clutching his head as if he was in pain.

“Five?” Allison asked. She got no response.

The people that were heading into the mall gave him a weary glance and moved several feet away from him. Allison couldn’t really blame them. She walked over to him and placed a hand on his back. He didn’t react at all. He was shaking.

“Five?” She asked again.

This time the boy seemed to hear her and his eyes flickered towards her.

“Allison?” He asked, looking unsure about where he was.

Allison nodded and tightened her grip on his back. She wanted to comfort him in some way. Whatever had just happened, she had a feeling that it might have been to do with the apocalypse.  
“There’s so many people,” He said, standing up from his crouching position. Allison removed her hand. “I forgot how busy the world was.”

Allison touched his forehead with the back of her hand. His skin was sweaty and sticky.

“Maybe this wasn’t such a great idea after. We can go back home?” She said looking at Five.

He shook his head. “I’m fine, Allison.”

He clearly was not fine. However she decided to humour him for the time being. She would keep a close eye on him and if he got any worse then they would go home and she wasn’t going to take no for an answer.

“Okay.” She said with an affirmed nod.

Five quickly wiped his face with his uniform sleeve. He looked pale. Allison frowned but let him walk in front of her, as she and Klaus followed from behind.

The mall they had come to was pretty upscale. Not only did it have a large car park that wrapped around the entire mall, but several floors of various shops. The first floor dealt with electronics and various assortments of technology. It was the third floor they wanted. Five used his powers to get up there much to the digress of Allison. He was lucky that no-one had seen. The Umbrella Academy, was much like a faded dream to the public and to be honest she wanted to keep it that way.

When she had first become an actress, the questions in her interviews had always been about what her childhood had been like. What she thought of her brothers, what she thought of her Father. She had always avoided these questions, wanting to forget about that side of her life. When the media had learned that they could get no answer from her, then had turned to her love life instead. To be honest it had been a relief, but then Vanya’s book had come out.

Everything had gone to shit when the media tried to publish stories on her, about her childhood. She took three weeks out of the spotlight to get away from the paparazzi constantly clicking their cameras outside her house’s gates. She remembered how angry she had been back then. How Vanya had ruined her life. Part of her still blamed Vanya, it was buried deep down now. When she thought about how she had treated Vanya, her sister deserved to have the book published. The only way that they could have both moved forward is forgive each other, and they had begun that.

Allison and Klaus headed up the stairs and found Five looking at a particular window display. There were several mannequins wearing corduroy pants and button up shirts. There was also a mannequin wearing a blouse that sparkled under the dim mall lights.

“Delores would have loved that blouse.” Five mumbled underneath his breath as he rubbed his chin.

Klaus wrapped his arms around him and squeezed Five.

“Interested in sequins my little brother?” He cooed.

Five squirmed out Klaus’s grip.

“No.” He said, pretending that he hadn’t been admiring the blouse.

“Let’s get you some clothes!” Klaus cheered as he pulled Five by his sleeve into the store.

What followed was the longest four hours of Allison’s life. Everytime her or Klaus would pick anything they thought Five might like he looked at in disgust, commenting on how he would stab it several times with a knife so that ‘no one would have to see that ever again.’ Over the last four hours, they had managed to get three pieces. A plain white collar shirt that looked similar to the Umbrella Academy’s one, a plain black sweater that Five had scoffed at and some black oxfords.

“Why do you want to dress like a college history professor?” Klaus muttered, staring at the black oxfords in their shopping cart.

“I like them,” Five scoffed, pulling off the pasty pink sweater that Klaus had given to him as a joke. “This wouldn’t take so long if you just let me pick instead of giving me stuff.”

“But you have no taste.” Klaus muttered picking up the sweater from where Five had thrown it onto the floor. There was the fifteenth piece of clothing that Klaus had picked up. If left to his own devices, Allison was pretty sure he would have created a clothing mountain.  
Five rolled his eyes.

“I’m choosing.” He then blinked away from them.

“Teenagers.” Klaus muttered as he looked at Allison.

Allison shrugged.

Another hour later, they were exiting the store with several large paper bags bulging at the brim with brown pants, a few pairs of jeans but they bags mostly had button up down shirts. Klaus had managed to convince Five to throw a few t-shirts in there and one pair of shorts that Allison was pretty sure Five would never wear. Allison had bought some things for herself that she had put into a separate bag that she was carrying.

They took another taxi back to the academy but she couldn’t help but notice that Five eyes were glazed over as the car passed through the city streets. When they arrived at the academy, he was still staring straight ahead as if he wasn’t aware they were home.

“Five?” Allison said as she shook his shoulder.

Five blinked once then looked at Allison. His eyes were full of tears. He quickly realised and then wiped them away.

“You were crying.” Alison said, stating the obvious.

“I wasn’t,” Five defended. He picked up his bags and pushed past her. He blinked away with them. Allison didn’t see him for the rest of the day.

=

Allison sat on her bed, breathing a deep sigh of relief. She had managed to secure airplane tickets after being on the phone waiting list for forty minutes. As she lay backwards, staring up at her ceiling allowing her to process the day's events.  
In a few days she would be standing in a courtroom facing her ex-husband and her daughter would be outside only metres away. The daughter that she had birthed and created, some would argue her very being for her existence. She had felt those two years every single day, missing her daughter. It was strange to love someone that much.

Before her daughter, she had often thought if she was capable of love that didn’t involve being in the same situation. Her Father had always been cruel and callous, for her first thirteen years of life she had believed that was the way families were supposed to work, until she had discovered the world of movies. She had vowed to herself that she would never be like her Father. However she had been controlling Claire, hadn’t she? She had been like her Father in that sense and she had paid the price.  
She let out a sob as tears streamed down her face, how long had she held onto this feeling? It had bubbled underneath the surface for so long and not that it was rising to the surface, it was coming out in waves that rattled her whole body.  
As she sobbed, Allison didn’t hear the sound of warping in her room.

“Allison?” Five asked.

Allison sat up startled and saw Five looking up with a gaze of concern.

“Are you crying?” He asked, mirroring her question from earlier.

He walked across her room towards her.

“Why are you in my room?” She asked.

“I think this is yours.” Five held out a red t-shirt that she had bought earlier.

“Oh, thanks.” She took it out of his hands.

“You didn’t answer my question.” He said rising his eyebrow.

“I miss Claire, I have to go to court on Wednesday. Everything is a mess.” Allison muttered burying her head into her hands.

Why did it feel like she was the child and Five was the adult right now?

“The court,” Five mumbled. “The court case with Patrick?”

Allison nodded. “I don’t know what to do. I don’t want to tell anyone but I can’t pack up my bags and leave. I managed to get two tickets but I don’t know if I can take anyone.” She said looking at him.

Five thought for a moment and then smiled.

“I’m coming with you.”


	10. Nothing Ever Goes Right For A Hargreeves

10

Nothing Ever Goes Right For A Hargreeves

Five looked at himself in the mirror and picked at the suit that Allison had brought for him. It fit him somewhat, the arms were the perfect length in the blazer but the legs were too big, bunching around his skinny knees. He felt an itch brewing on his chest and began to scratch at his shirt. The whole suit was itchy.

Five glanced at the clothes that he had changed out of resting on the bed. A button down shirt and jeans. It had only been two days since he had gone shopping with Klaus and Allison, and he already wanted to put those clothes back on.

He turned back to the mirror and picked at the fabric trying to get it to fit better but his efforts were still in vain. The suit still looked frumpy and the itchiness hadn’t left. Five sighed and began to take his blazer off, hanging it on the closet door.

What an exciting tuesday night, he thought to himself. Tomorrow Allison’s custody fight would begin to see if her visitation rights would be taken away completely. She had managed to book them a hotel on the night they left, separate rooms of course. It was a grand hotel, only something that would have been built in the 1920’s during the start of the silent film era. There were several floors towering towards the sky complete with their own balconies and hot tubs.

Five’s room was on the third floor. He supposed it was stylish, he couldn’t really tell. Most of the room was white with gold plated pieces and murals of cranes flying covering the walls. It was the original wallpaper kept maintained to precision. Allison’s room was right across from his, although she wasn’t there. She was down the hallway on the phone talking to her lawyer about everything that she needed to do.

Taking a few paces towards bed, Five sat down feeling the covers and mattress sink underneath his weight. Five looked down at the suit again and felt a pang within his chest. Why had he not gone with Allison? He didn’t want to be on his own. A powerful pound went through his head and he clutched at it. No, not again. He was getting tired of this. He began to push the images down trying to think of other things but the memory came in full force and threw him back into the apocalypse.  
=  
He was sitting at his library home and scratching at the beginnings of a beard that had started to appear on his face. He was looking at the ground at a drawing of a birthday cake he had done himself. It was October 1st 2024 and what he considered his eighteenth birthday. He laughed to himself and stared at the drawing. How pathetic. It was the wishes of a child to celebrate his birthday with his siblings. Five growled and began to punch the birthday cake. He began to punch faster and harder. The dust rose and swirled in rivers.

Five! He heard Delores say and he turned to her with a sweating face and heavy breaths.  
 _I know you’re upset but-_

Five laughed. Did she really want an argument right now? She knew he was upset, he wanted to get his anger out in peace but of course she interrupted.

“But what Delores? Are you going to tell me that they wouldn’t have wanted me to act like this? That they would have wanted me to keep going. That’s what I have been doing! That’s what I’ve been doing!” He screamed into the air and punched the ground again.

He removed his hand and looked at the scratches that had appeared on his fingers, his knuckles had started to bleed the skin all but shredded to bits. He began to raise his fist again.

 _Five, please stop! You’re going to hurt yourself_. Delores pleaded.

He looked across her and although she never showed any emotion on her features. It was the tone in her voice that stopped him. He sighed and lay down in the dust staring at the sky.

“It’s been five years.” He whispered and draped his arm across his eyes.

Five years of surviving and nothing else. Five years of failed equations and nothing to show for it. It was his eighteenth birthday and he was spending it without his siblings. He wondered what they had done for their eighteenth. Would they have all been still at home? Vanya’s book focused on their childhood and what she had done after. There was very little in terms of what his other siblings had done.

He could imagine that Diego would have been the first to leave, the only thing that had kept him there would have been their AI Mother. Five had a gratitude towards her but he had never really been infatuated with her like Diego had been. The others would have followed but he knew Luther would have stayed. Forever his Father’s little servant.

Five began to set up and looked at the grey sky. What a birthday. All he had done was injure himself. He clambered up and walked over to his stack of booze that he had started to gather when he was around fifteen. When he had first found them in the cellar of a house he had been a bit hesitant to drink them. However almost dying of thirst had soon convinced him. Now he couldn’t care less. He picked up the bottle of rum and unscrewed the cap. He could feel tears pricking his eyes and wiped them away. He was an adult now.

He began to chug the rum not caring if got a hangover in the morning. The tears were coming fresh and fast. Why was he crying? HIs mind was already hazy. He kept drinking and drinking until there was none left. That night, Five Hargreeves had drunk himself to sleep on his eighteenth birthday.  
=

Five gasped to himself as he came out of the memory. That was the fifth one now and they were getting more frequent now. His older self was showing him his memories and he had no way to fight back. At the moment although they had been hard to see, they were about the apocalypse, it was something that he could cope with to a degree. The degree being very small because the memories had felt real to him, like he had been there although he hadn’t experienced anything yet.

The memories were still around the teenage years, he had wondered if his older self was trying to use some sort of tactic and if it was wearing him down, it was working. He hadn’t heard his older self’s voice for a while either, so he didn’t know what to do about all these memory flashes.

He lay down on the bed and stared at the ceiling. So far, Allison hadn’t noticed that he had been having flashes of memory but what about if she did catch him spacing out? He supposed he could lie and say that he had a headache but what good would that do? She would only mother him.

There was a soft knock at the door. Five got up from the bed and opened it.

“Hey Allison.” He said as he looked up at her.

The light from the hall was shining on her face and Five saw a faint glimmer of tears on her cheeks.

“Hey Five, I wanted to see how you were doing.” It felt like a poor excuse to talk to him. They had only spoken around an hour ago.

“I’m okay.” Five said and opened the door wider to let her in.

Allison walked in and looked at his suit.

“Hmm maybe I should have got you a smaller suit.” She said looking at his arms.

Five was so skinny he wondered if going another size down would have made any difference. He blamed the state of his body on the apocalypse and he doubted his older self had looked after himself.

“It will do. What did the lawyer say?” Five asked, changing the subject.

Allison scrunched her face up as she tried to smile. It was a poor attempt.

“That it’s going to be a difficult case and that I may lose. They said because of the circumstances of me rumoring her, which in their eyes believe that I’m taking away her free will that it will not go in my favour. My lawyer said to keep fighting because it’s going to be one of my toughest battles yet-,” Allison paused to let out a heavy sob. “She’s right, this is the hardest. Harder than stopping any apocalypse.”

Five frowned. He wasn’t the best at comforting people, at all.

Before he could say anything Allison had wrapped her arms around him and squeezed him tightly. He stood awkwardly for a moment before putting one arm around her and patting her back. He stood there for a moment letting Allison sob into his shoulder. She released the hug after she started to dry sob and wiped away her tears.

“Will you be able to even see a glimpse of her?” Five asked, because if there was something he could do. He wanted to help his sister any way he could but he wasn’t where he could even start.

“I don’t know Five. Unless I’m supervised by Patrick and the entire court I have no idea.” Allison’s voice was cracking, although her tears had dried out a while ago, she was still upset.

_You can’t do anything, boy. This is beyond you._

His older self's voice. The old man sounded tired.

Maybe it was beyond him, or maybe it wasn’t. Five knew he wasn’t powerless but what could he do in a court? Or why had he even come in the first place? He had been a spur of the moment decision to come with Allison. He had wanted to support her and another was that he wanted to meet Claire. Even if that meant sneaking her out of the court. He assumed she would be going.

“Patrick won’t let you near her will her?” Five mumbled.

Allison nodded.

“Yes. It’s hard to believe that he was my husband once.” She muttered.

“How did you meet him? I don’t think Vanya’s book mentioned the two of you meeting.” Five replied. Then again, he doubted Vanya and Allison had been talking then.

Allison froze for a second and sighed like the weight of the world was resting on her shoulders.

“I was nineteen and on the set of my second major role. He was one of the sound technicians. I thought he was quite attractive and so walked over there and we ended up together.” Allison said.

It was a vague description and Five was sure there was more to the story. He didn’t want to press any further because he was sure that it brought up painful memories for Allison and she was already going through so much, he didn’t want to add to that pain even further.  
“I know you will be able to see her again Allison. I’m sure of it.” Five said, but he sounded like he was trying to convince himself more than her.

Allison forced a smile.

“I don’t know Five. I better go to bed, it’s going to be a long day tomorrow. Make sure you’re up.” She patted his head, realized what she was doing and took her hand away quickly.

Five had liked it. It had been warm and comforting but he didn’t say anything about it as she began to walk towards the door.

“Goodnight Five.” She said as she closed the door behind her

“Night.” He said as he watched her leave.

Five reached up and touched his hair where Allison had patted it. He patted the spot, it didn’t feel the same as her’s. Her’s had been a mother’s touch.

=

The anger that Allison felt threatened to consume her as she watched her husband walk down the corridor. He glanced her way before disappearing towards the court doors, he didn’t make any gesture towards her. Only looked at her as if she was a minor inconvenience.

“Allison, are you ready?” She heard Five ask as he came walking down the corridor. He ran a hand through his hair and looked pale.

“As ready as I’ll ever be.” She muttered.

“I’ll be waiting outside.” He said with a nod.

Five wasn’t going to be allowed inside because technically Five Hargreeves had disappeared seventeen years ago and if he had come back, he was supposed to be 29 years old. Not thirteen. Allison hadn’t wanted to get into complicated matters although he still had to wear a suit to enter the courthouse. She didn’t dare rumour a full court of people to get her brother in, no matter how she wanted him to be there. She would have to do this on her own.

She looked at Five’s jacket and tried to straighten it pulling at the lapels. He let her and then moved away, shoving his hands into his pockets.

“I am going to fight for her, Five.” She said, trying to fill herself with confidence. She wanted to see her daughter again, this what her whole battle had been.

“You are. You can do it.” Five encouraged.

Allison breathed a deep sigh and then began to walk away from Five down the hallway, her footsteps echoing across the marble floor.

The courthouse that her case was being held in was one that had seen many famous cases come and go. The most notable being an outlaw in the 1940’s running an underground bar during the prohibition era. Allison felt like a criminal, although she wasn’t being sent to jail.

She walked further down the court house towards where the courtroom would be. Her lawyer would meet her on the outside. As she got closer, she could feel her heart hammering in her chest. Allison saw her lawyer waiting for her by the door, looking through a stack of paper that she had.

Sai Patel was one of Hollywood’s greatest lawyers, there was no case that she wouldn’t take as long as that case included a woman and not a man, then she would fight for them. Allison doubted that she had many met like her case, where the person had powers. In fact that had been Sai’s selling point and the reason that she had wanted to take Allison’s case on.

As Allison approached her, she waved to her without looking up from the stack of paper.

“It’s going to be a tough one.” She muttered and then looked up at Allison battering long eyelashes up at her.

“Do you think I can do it?” Allison asked her, biting her lip.

Sai smiled and rolled up her suit’s sleeves.

“We are going to get your visitation rights if it’s the last thing I ever do, Allison Hargreeves. Now come on let’s go.”

Allison followed Sai through the door and they walked into the courtroom. Allison kept her head down as she could feel people’s eyes on her, watching her, judging her for the mistakes that she had made. Maybe everything she had ever done had been a mistake but she needed to do this for her daughter. She needed to be brave. She had people on her side.

She put her head up and saw the faces of her former family staring down at her. Claire’s grandmother, her former sister in law and her grown up children. Had Patrick brought his whole side of the family with him?

As her and Sai got to the seat, she looked across at Patrick with his own lawyer. The man grimaced as they made eye contact. He looked away quickly enough. He had always been a more attractive man, but he looked a lot healthier now. His hair had been cut shorter, and his few days' stubble that he used to keep shaved was now a full grown beard. He looked a little wearier around the eyes, but it was the same man that she had once loved.  
The problem had been that he had never loved her back. It was her deepest secret that she would never tell anyone, not even Luther. She remembered when she had first approached him, the way he had been messing around with his boom mike and trying to remember how it was supposed to work.

He had been starstruck for a second, surprised that she had even bothered him. Their first date had been wonderful, almost like a fairytale. It was on their fourth when she had overheard him talking to a friend about how he was only using her for sex because despite her fame, she was quite innocent. She had used her rumour on him then to make him fall in love with her.

It was the only rumour she had ever used on Patrick and the one rumour had worked up until he had seen her rumouring Claire. He hadn’t confronted her but she knew he had thought about it and did not want to bring those memories up. Instead she had run away from it all, like she had always done. It was now time to face the consequences.

The judge walked in. He was a beefy man who’s facial expression said that he clearly thought that this was an entire waste of time. He sat in his chair and slammed the hammer down.

“Court is now in session. I believe that this is a dispute between Patrick Jones and his former wife Allison Hargreeves, in breach of her signed contract. She was supposed to be doing a therapy session before a trail visitation with her daughter, is that correct?” He said reading from the papers in front of him.

Patrick’s lawyer stood up, a small filipino woman who’s smug grin caused a shiver to run down Allison’s spine.

“Yes your honour, she claimed that she was at her ‘father’s’ funeral. A Father who I believed according to her sister’s biography was quite cruel.” The woman brought out Vanya’s book and placed it on the table in front of her. “I find it hard to believe that she wanted to go to the funeral of a man like that.”

Allison couldn’t breathe. This had to be a joke? What sort of bullshit reason had Patrick’s lawyer come up with? No, this had to be his idea. It wanted to make sure that she would never see her daughter again. He was not about to take that away.

“Your Honor! Objection! Despite all of this he was still my Father,” Allison began.

Sai then put her arm out and shook her head. “Let me handle this.” She whispered.

Allison nodded, and let Sai speak. She had always been better at handling the court situations for her, especially with Patrick’s Divorce.

“Allison is right, your honor. He was still Allison’s Father, she would have had to go to his funeral. It was only right for her to do so, no matter what Reginald Hargreeves was like, she would still go to his funeral. As for her sister’s book, I believe that his adopted children all split ways and haven’t spoken since.”

Except she had spoken to her siblings last week. However Allison wasn’t going to bring that up when she knew she had only spoken to them a few days ago. When her and Five had left, they had left a note for the others to find so that she would understand where they had gone. It wasn’t like there was a major apocalypse happening anymore so she trusted her siblings could hold it together for a few days.

“I have never know Sir Reginald Hargreeves and although you both bring up very valid points, I find it hard to believe that this domestic issue had to be served in a court of law. Can’t you two sort it out without the use of the court?” The judge sighed.

Allison silently agreed with him, this all had been Patrick’s idea but she supposed he didn’t want to be anyway near her. Although the judge was being very unprofessional.

“Your honour!” Patrick’s lawyer cried out slamming Vanya’s book on the desk. “Allison Hargreeves has powers, who’s to say she hasn’t used them on us!”

“I haven’t done anything at all, in fact I’ve barely spoken!” Allison said. “There are so many people in this room, I’ve never rumoured an entire crowd of people. It’s impossible.”

The woman laughed.

“You could be lying!”

“Did Patrick put you up to this?” Allison snapped glaring at her ex husband who had been silent.

“Enough!” The judge slammed his hammer down on the table. “This is a court of law not an elementary school yard!”

There was silence for a few moments until there was a warping sound and Five appeared in the middle of the courtroom. Allison’s eyes widened as she looked at the boy, his clothes were ripped to shreds and there was blood dripping from his arm, a black bruise was forming on his face around his eyes in a perfect circle.

“Allison…,” He breathed, only looking at her and not looking at his audience. “It’s Claire, she’s..she’s been kidnapped.” He said before collapsing onto the floor.

Allison rushed to his side as the court around her began to uproar.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It was my birthday on Friday and I really wanted to get this up before then, but my motivation has been lacking lately. I'm hoping to finish this story in the next coming months as I've had an idea for a new one that I really want to work on. So hopefully I can write these next five chapters out and get this story finished. 
> 
> tumblr: guardianofdust


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